Why MP Mohan Delkar suicide case is lying in a cold storage ?

Why is CM Uddhav Thackeray soft on Praful Khoda Patel?

#Sprouts News : Unmesh Gujarathi

Although an FIR has been filed on charges of abetment to suicide, in the mysterious death of an Independent MP from Dadra and Nagar Haveli Mohan Delkar, at a Mumbai Hotel in February this year, the case has been lying in cold storage for the last three months.

Delkar (58), a seven-term Lok Sabha member, allegedly died by suicide at Hotel Sea Green South, at Marine Drive in South Mumbai on February 22,2021. His body was found at the sea-facing hotel. After initially registering a case of accidental death, an FIR was registered on March 09,2021 under IPC sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 506 (criminal intimidation), 389 (putting person in fear of accusation of offence in order to commit extortion) and also under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Delkar, a Tribal rights activist, had come to Mumbai on February 21, to attend a court hearing of one of his supporters, but hanged himself from the ceiling fan of the hotel, leaving a 15-page suicide note in Gujarati. The note held politicians and administrative officials responsible for "injustice", "insult" and "bias" meted out to him and specifically named Praful Khoda Patel. Delkar was cremated with full state honours on February 23 at his home town Silvassa in presence of a large number of his supporters.

• Based on the suicide note and a complaint submitted by Abhinav, the Mumbai police had registered an offence against nine persons, including Patel, Sandeep Singh (district collector of DNH), Sharad Darade (then superintendent of police, DNH, now transferred to the Daman police headquarters), Apurva Sharma (resident deputy collector of DNH), Manasvi Jain (sub-divisional officer, police department), Manoj Patel (police inspector Silvassa), Rohit Yadav (DNH administrative department official), Fethsinh Chauhan (BJP leader) and Dilip Patel (revenue administrator of Silvassa). Subsequently the then Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh directed that the matter be investigated by the Special Investigating team(SIT).

Patel, considered to be a close confidante of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, had allegedly harassed Delkar, pushing him to take this drastic step.

• In his complaint, to Mumbai Police, Abhinav stated that the accused had hatched a conspiracy to stop his father from contesting elections and to get control over his college. They also demanded Rs 25 crore by threatening to implicate him in a false criminal case, he alleged. His father had complained to various authorities about the harassment. "If my father had committed suicide at Silvasa, there were chances that investigation in the case would not have been proper, so he deliberately chose Mumbai to end his life,", Abhinav had mentioned in his statement.

Abhinav had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on the treatment meted out to him by Patel and some ministers, but his letter was completely ignored.

• Praful Khoda Patel was the Home Minister of Gujarat when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of that state. He took charge as the administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu in August 2016. He was the first politically appointed administrator in the history of the union territories, a position that had previously been held only by officers from the Indian Administrative Services. In 2010, Amit Shah resigned as the minister of state for home in Gujarat, after he was arrested in connection with the allegedly staged encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh. Then Patel took over as the Home Minister of Gujarat.
• Delkar started his career as a trade union leader in Silvassa and fought for the rights of tribal people working in different factories. Later, he set up “Adivasi Vikas Sangathan” for the tribals in 1985. In 1989, he was elected to the 9 th Lok Sabha, from Dadra and Nagar Haveli constituency as an independent candidate. In 1991 and 1996 he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha on a Congress ticket. In 1998, he was elected to the Lok Sabha as a BJP candidate. In 1999 and 2004, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha as an independent and the Bharatiya Navshakti Party (BNP) candidate respectively. On February 04, 2009, he re-joined Congress and unsuccessfully contested in 2009 and 2014. In 2019 he distanced himself from the Congress and was elected as an independent candidate. However, in 2020, he had joined the Janata Dal(United) party.

"There is a conspiracy to stop my father from contesting elections and to get control over our college. That is why he was harassed to take a drastic step. Still I strongly believe in our system. I hope justice will prevail."

— Abhinav Delkar

The Son of Mohan Delkar