Not wanting to die in “obscurity”, a 39-year-old man committed suicide near the Parliament House in Delhi after travelling all the way from his hometown in Madhya Pradesh.
A 23-page suicide note was found in a bag near the tree he hung himself from. The note revealed that he was depressed after losing all his money, possibly running into crores of rupees, while betting on Indian Premier League matches and other sports.
The deceased has been identified as Ram Dayal Verma. The police said he had a business of manufacturing and selling utensils back in Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri district.
Verma, in jeans and a full-sleeved shirt, was found hanging from a tree near the media parking lot in Vijay Chowk, a high-security zone near the Parliament. The area, however, is accessible to the public, many of who go there to exercise every morning.
Jatin Narwal, DCP (New Delhi), said it were some security personnel who had spotted the body. The police were informed and the body brought down.
A search of the area soon led to the recovery of a bag that contained the alleged suicide note and some other documents. In the suicide note, Verma mentioned how he was addicted to betting on cricket matches, especially the IPL games. “The deceased revealed that he had borrowed a lot of money for betting purposes and had lost all of it and was buried in debt,” said Mr. Narwal.
The exact sum of money he lost remains unclear because of the different amounts mentioned by him at several places in the suicide note. In one place he wrote about losing Rs.13 crore, the police said.
Betting addiction
While the authenticity of the hand-written note is yet to be verified, it also contained that he was addicted to betting and since he could neither come out of it nor recover his lost money, he had no option but to end his life. Verma also named a host of suspected bookies and the police said they were in the process of contacting the police in Madhya Pradesh to know about the betting rackets he was associated with.
He did not specifically write seeking punishment for those named in the suicide note, but warned others from getting addicted to betting. The deceased wrote that he did not want to die in “obscurity” in his native place because of which he chose Delhi as the location for his suicide. “He wrote that he hoped his suicide would help highlight the negative effects of betting,” said an officer.
No Delhi link
The police said there was no other reason for him to choose Delhi as his suicide location.
“He does not seem to have any link with Delhi and did not make any attempt to meet authorities here. His note does not mention any desire to get his concerns addressed,” said an investigator.
The suicide note helped the police contact his brother through phone. “His brother’s first response indicated that he feared that Verma was arrested for betting. The family seemed aware of his betting addiction and they are on their way to Delhi,” said the officer on Thursday evening.
While no travel ticket was recovered from the deceased’s bag, the police said he arrived in Delhi late on Wednesday night as he had left from his native home in the morning after telling his wife that he would meet some authorities in Delhi.
