Tainted govt officer, son commit suicide after wife, daughter

NEW DELHI: A former director general in the corporate affairs ministry and his son were found dead at their east Delhi home on Tuesday, two months after his wife and daughter killed themselves over his arrest for alleged corruption.

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BK Bansal was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his bedroom by the family’s domestic help, a day after he visited the CBI headquarters to deliver a handful of documents. His 31-year-old son, Yogesh, was also found hanging in his room.

Domestic help Rachna had earlier discovered the bodies of Bansal’s 58-year-old wife Satya Bala and daughter Neha, 28, in two rooms of their home at Neelkanth Apartment in east Delhi’s Madhu Vihar area on July 19.

The CBI arrested Bansal on July 16 for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 20 lakh from Mumbai-based fir m Elder Pharmaceutical, which has been accused of duping 24,000 investors of Rs 176 crore through a fraudulent investment scheme. He was accused of taking the bribe to scuttle an investigation against the firm.

The mother-daughter duo wrote in their suicide notes that they lost the will to live because of the humiliation when CBI officials searched their home and arrested Bansal.

Taking note of the unfortunate events in his family after his arrest, a special CBI court granted the former bureaucrat bail in August.

But on Tuesday, the 59-year-old Bansal and his son were found hanging in the same rooms where his wife and daughter hanged themselves.

Police said the duo left behind separate suicide notes in which they allegedly blamed CBI officials of harassment that forced the family to kill themselves within two months. Four photocopies of each note, written and signed in Hindi, and photos with contact numbers of their relatives were also recovered.

Addressing his five-page note to the CBI director, a police officer said, Bansal demanded the central investigating agency to initiate a probe into the “harassment” by CBI officials, including a DIG-rank officer.

Yogesh’s two-page note contained similar allegations, the officer said.

“Since the case was being probed by CBI, we have forwarded the suicide notes to them. We have initiated in quest proceedings to ascertain if any criminality was involved the suicide pact,” said SBK Singh, the special commissioner of police( law and order, north).

Police suspect the father and son’s suicide pact was planned on Monday evening when they told Rachna to come late the next day and that the main door would be left open for her. “When Rachna went to clean Bansal’s room, she found him hanging with a rope around his neck. She rushed to Yogesh’s room and found him in a similar state,” deputy commissioner of police (east) Rishipal Singh said.

She immediately rushed down to the apartment security officer’s room, raised the alarm and fainted.

“We are deeply saddened to know the unfortunate demise of BK Bansal and his son today. The matter is being looked into by local police,” CBI spokesperson RK Gaur said. The agency clarified that the younger Bansal, who was reported to be under the scanner, was neither an accused nor was he summoned in the alleged bribery case. The CBI has yet to complete the investigation and file a charge sheet.