Mumbai travel operator’s suicide gets mysterious

The suicide by Lalit Sheth, founder of Shree Raj Tours and Travels on August 1 took a mysterious turn on Friday with his family members dismissing reports that indebtedness drove him to end his life.

The suicide by Lalit Sheth, founder of Shree Raj Tours and Travels on August 1 took a mysterious turn on Friday with his family members dismissing reports that indebtedness drove him to end his life.

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Family members told the police they were not aware of any threats to him, ruled out any foul play and said debts could not have pushed him to suicide.

Sheth jumped off the Bandra-Worli Sea Link after telling his driver to park his Volkswagen Vento car on the road and walked towards his death.

Sheth’s son Akash told Hindustan Times that the media reports wrongly stated that Sheth had to return Rs. 61 lakh to Vinod Bhagat, brother of slain matka king Suresh Bhagat, by Wednesday evening — the day Sheth killed himself — if he wanted to retain the Raj travels office opposite his Opera House residence.

“There is a case going on in the Bombay high court regarding the Opera House office but it is false that we would have lost it if we didn’t pay the same day,” Akash said.

“The court had granted us two more months to arrange for the payment, something that gave us time till the end of September,” he said.

Akash said the family didn’t owe Rs. 61 lakh to Vinod Bhagat.

“Do you think a person of my father’s stature would kill himself for an amount he could arrange by making just a few phone calls?”

Akash said there was not connection between the dispute with Bhagat and his father’s suicide.

So, what drove Sheth to end his life?