‘No foul play in Nagpur bureaucrat’s death’

The Government Railway Police (GRP) are not suspecting any foul play in the death of former deputy collector from Nagpur, Prabhakar Darbhe.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) are not suspecting any foul play in the death of former deputy collector from Nagpur, Prabhakar Darbhe.

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Darbhe (73), who was probing a job recruitment scam in Nagpur, was found dead in the waiting room of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) station on January 25 two days after he arrived in Mumbai.

Darbhe, whose body was found near a water cooler, had spent two nights in the waiting room.

Police said closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage show Darbhe’s movements from the time he entered the CST station on Friday to the moment he collapsed adn indicated he fell ill before he died.

Qaiser Khaleed, deputy commissioner, GRP, said that Darbhe had fever when he entered the waiting room on January 22. “The CCTV shows Darbhe was in the waiting room for two nights except for a few hours when he went out leaving his luggage behind,” said Khaleed.

Darbhe went to Mantralaya on Friday but started feeling unwell. The police received a call and sent a mobile with two constables who took a panting Darbhe to St George’s Hospital.

After treatment, Darbhe told the police that he was fine and wanted to return to Nagpur. He took a voluntary discharge.

Since the train to Nagpur had left, Darbhe retired in the waiting room. He spent two nights there before he collapsed.

Darbhe’s superiors at the Nagpur Municipal Corporation, for which he was conducting the probe, suspected there was something amiss because the probe report he had was missing. However, the GRP later found the documents where Darbhe had left them. Khaleed said Darbhe could not contact his family because his cell phone had run out of battery.

Police Inspector P. Yeram from the GRP station at CST said that the assistant deputy collector had come to Mumbai from Nagpur to collect the documents. “If the officers allege tampering with the documents we will conduct an investigation,” said Yeram.