BHOPAL: A local businessman in Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh district pushed his car off the road into an overflowing river on September 5 to fake his death after he was unable to repay loans to the tune of ₹1.4 crore, police said on Friday after tracking down the man in Maharashtra.
The police are yet to file any charges against the man, identified as Vishal Soni, son of a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mahesh Soni.
“Vishal owned six trucks and two other vehicles and was unable to repay loans totalling over ₹1.4 crores. Facing mounting financial pressure, he devised a plan to fake his death,” said Akanksha Hada, police station in-charge, Sarnagpur.
On September 5, police received information that a car had been found floating in the river, with no sign of the driver. The vehicle was retrieved. Mahesh Soni told the police that the vehicle belonged to his son.
For the next 10 days, personnel of the State Disaster Response Force and local villagers mounted a massive search operation for Mahesh Soni’s son covering a 20-km area. But rescue workers were unable to find the body, prompting the BJP leader to accuse authorities on the eighth day of the search of not doing enough.
“The operation intensified the search the following day. Three teams searched for him separately. They even searched the entire one-kilometer area from the bridge to the stop dam, but the body was not recovered,” said Akanksha Hada.
{{/usCountry}}“The operation intensified the search the following day. Three teams searched for him separately. They even searched the entire one-kilometer area from the bridge to the stop dam, but the body was not recovered,” said Akanksha Hada.
{{/usCountry}}When the police received the phone’s call data record, it turned out that the device was in Maharashtra, leading the police to wonder if he was abducted.
A police team was sent to Maharashtra which tracked him to Sambhajinagar district. Soni eventually surrendered at Fardapur police station area in Sambhajinagar.
The BJP leader’s son told the police that he staged his death after being unable to repay the debt and left the area.