Bookie ends life over debts incurred due to cricket betting

Gurugram: A 33-year-old man, who was a bookie and a real estate broker, on Thursday allegedly died by suicide inside his house in Sector 37, said police on Friday, adding that they have not recovered a suicide note

Gurugram: A 33-year-old man, who was a bookie and a real estate broker, on Thursday allegedly died by suicide inside his house in Sector 37, said police on Friday, adding that they have not recovered a suicide note.

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The deceased shot himself in the head with his licenced revolver as he was under pressure to return a lot of money that he borrowed from a few people for betting, and got into a dispute with some of the lenders, said police.

Rahul Dev, station house officer (SHO) of Sector 37 police station, said that the family has not filed a complaint against anyone yet. We handed over the body to his family on Friday following a post mortem, said Dev, adding, “According to his neighbours, some financers visited his house on Thursday evening and created a ruckus. The father of the deceased pleaded to them, and promised to return the money to them within a month. The financers left the house after that,” Dev said.

Following this incident, the man locked his room and shot himself in the headaround 6.30pm, said police. The deceased is survived by his wife, two children, and parents.

According to police, the man lost a lot of money betting on cricket matches, and was in a severe financial crisis.

Another neighbour of the deceased said that the man had been harassed by officials of several finance companies and other bookies for not returning money he had loaned from them. Police, however, said that no such complaint has been filed so far.

Police said they have initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and an investigation is underway.