Pune police investigating the suicide of prominent businessman Ajay Chordia said that a note allegedly left by him blamed one Ashish Sharma, stating that Sharma had taken Rs. 5 crore and a flat in Pune’s Baner area from him (Chordia).
Pimpri-Chinchwad police sources told The Hindu that the suicide note allegedly written by Chordia holds Sharma responsible. Chordia was found hanging in a luxury hotel here on October 27.
“The deceased talks about being ‘frustrated’ by this Ashish Sharma. We haven’t discovered his (Sharma’s) identity or his link with Mr. Chordia. We are verifying whether the handwriting is indeed Mr. Chordia’s,” said senior inspector B. Mudiraj, in-charge of the Pimpri police station. The police have also been scrutinising CCTV footage from the hotel.
Chordia was chairman and managing director of the luxury chain of Panchshil Hotels, which recently partnered with Hilton Hotels & Resorts to launch Double Tree.
He was found hanging from the fire extinguisher pipe on the 11th floor of the five-star hotel which he partly owned.
Political tiesThe Chordia family is noted for its close affinity with the Nationalist Congress Party and its chief Sharad Pawar. Chordia’s father, Ishwardas, is a close friend of Mr. Pawar. The NCP chief was in Pune to attend Chordia’s funeral.
Chordia, along with his brother Atul, also managed the real estate firm, Panchsil Realty. The company has been bedevilled by controversies after it was found that Mr. Pawar’s daughter and NCP MP Supriya Sule, and her husband, Sadanand, misinformed authorities about their stock held in the Panchshil Tech Park.
While the duo claimed to own about 8 per cent of the tech park’s shares, records revealed that Ms. Sule alone owned more than 9 per cent shares.
