The Congress party in Maharashtra alleged on Saturday that Mohan Delkar, who was a Lok Sabha MP, had spoken of ill-treatment meted out to him and him being on the verge of committing suicide, to the privilege committee of Parliament two weeks before his death in Mumbai.
Delkar, who represented the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, was found dead in a hotel in Mumbai in February 2021. He had left a suicide note in which he named the UT’s administrator Praful K. Patel, former Home Minister of Gujarat.
The Maharashtra government has already announced the formation of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe in to the death of Delkar as requested by his son and wife to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
“On February 12, 2021 the privilege committee of the Lok Sabha undertook a hearing on the complaints of Mohan Delkar. Before the committee he talked about the kind of pressure he was under. He reportedly even said that he has two options before him: ‘Either to resign from Parliament or to commit suicide’. We demand explanation from the privilege committee whether Delkar said so as within just 10 days he committed suicide,” said State Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant.
The Congress has also alleged that before committing suicide, Delkar had tried getting help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. “As the question was of life and death of a Member of Parliament either of them could have helped but did they deliberately ignore it?” asked Mr. Sawant. He had written two letters to Mr. Modi, one on December 18, 2020 and the other on January 31, 2021. He had written to Mr. Shah as well and sent three letters to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and one to Standing Committee chairman Bhupendra Yadav.
Mr. Sawant said that Delkar was persecuted and insulted by BJP leader Praful K. Patel and several central administrative officers. “He had complained that they were trying to entangle him in crimes which he had no connection with. He was threatened with dire consequences and was told that his family will be put in jail,” said Mr. Sawant.
