Belapur hostel owner booked for abetment to suicide

The manager of the hostel ended his life after repeated thrashing by the accused over suspected embezzlement of hostel funds

Navi Mumbai

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NRI Coastal police has arrested a man who ran a hostel in Belapur on the charges of abetment to suicide after the manager of the hostel ended his life due to continuous thrashing by the accused over the suspicion of embezzlement of ₹60,000 of the accounts. The accused Pradip Chaudhar ran a hostel named ‘Seamen’s Hostel’ at Matoshree building in Diwale village at Belapur wherein Namraj Gauri alias Padam Bisht (26), a Nepali resident, had been working for over four years.

On February 2, the owner of the hostel, Chaudhar found some discrepancy of ₹60,000 while going through the accounts of the hostel and suspected Bisht of embezzlement of the amount. Chaudhar demanded the money back from Bisht and decided to deduct ₹40,000 from his salary and remaining ₹20,000 from the salary of his cousin Janak Bisht who also worked there. Later, Chaudhar sacked him from the job after which Bisht, who used to reside at Belpada in Kharghar, shifted to Ulwe to stay with a relative and find job there. The complainant in the case, his father, Gauri alias Padam Manoshur Bisht (44) worked as a watchman and resides in Belpada along with his two other sons. His wife, one daughter and three other sons stay in Bajura at Nepal.

The father of the deceased claimed that on January 5, he got a call from his niece in Ulwe who said that on the night of January 4, Chaudhar along with two other Nepali boys had forcefully taken Bisht with them in the car and now she got to know that he jumped off from a building in Belapur. During investigations, the police found that Chaudhar got to know that even after sacking him from the job, Bisht recovered room fees from the inmates of ₹5,500 and hence he summoned the friends of deceased, Surendra Bisht and Ramesh Rokaya to the office of the hostel and beat them up asking about the whereabouts of BIsht. The duo showed his place of residence and then Chaudhar forcefully took Bisht to Matoshree building and started hitting him with a belt and iron pipe. Later he was taken to another building nearby wherein he was kept captive but Bisht managed to flee and afraid of being hot more, he ran to the terrace and jumped down causing his death.

“We registered the case and arrested Chaudhar. There are eye witnesses who have confirmed that Bisht himself ran off to the terrace afraid of the beating and jumped and hence we do not suspect it to be a case of murder. We are investigating if there is anyone else involved in the crime,” senior police inspector Satish Kadam from NRI Coastal police station said. Cahudhar was arrested under the sections of 306 (abetment to suicide) and 363 (kidnapping) of the IPC>