Mumbai: Mohan Delkar, the seven-time member of Parliament from Dadra and Nagar Haveli whose body was found hanging in a hotel room in Mumbai last month, was being “harassed” by the Union Territory Administrator, Praful Khoda Patel, to cough up Rs 25 crore or face a false case under the Prevention of Anti-Social Activities (PASA) Act, his son Abhinav Delkar has alleged in his complaint to the police.
Delkar’s body was found in a room at Hotel Sea Green South on Marine Drive on 22 February.
On Tuesday, the Mumbai Police registered a case under sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 389 (Putting person in fear of accusation of offence, in order to commit extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC, and relevant sections of the Prevention of Atrocities of SC/ST Act against 9 persons.
The FIR, a copy of which is with ThePrint, was registered on the basis of Abhinav’s complaint (originally in Marathi) that named Dadra and Nagar Haveli Administrator Praful Khoda Patel, District Magistrate (DM) Sandeep Singh (IAS), former superintendent of police (SP) Sharad Darade (IPS), Deputy District Magistrate Apurva Sharma (DANICS – Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service), Sub-Divisional Officer Manasvi Jain (DANIPS – Delhi Andaman and Nicobar Islands Police Service), police inspector Manoj Patel, Dadra and Nagar Haveli Law Secretary Rohit Yadav, BJP leader Fatehsinh V Chauhan and Dilip Patel (talathi).
In his complaint, Abhinav alleged that his father Mohan Delkar, a prominent Adivasi leader from the Dodhiya Patel community who won the 2019 Lok Sabha election as an independent candidate, had been under “severe mental stress since a year” and was being harassed by the Dadra & Nagar Haveli administration on Patel’s orders.
“The administration and its various officers would keep filing unfounded and false complaints against my father. There was harassment by the police,” he said in his complaint.
Abhinav also alleged that Patel wanted to take control of SSR College, owned by Delkar at Silvassa in the UT, and had put an administrator to govern college matters and “harass” Delkar.
Abhinav also alleged that Patel threatened to put Delkar in prison on “false cases”.
“For the last one year, my father had been under mental tension. Under the guidance of Praful Patel, the administrative officials used to target him, and harass and insult him. The reason behind doing it was that they wanted to get control over SSR College at Silvassa run by my father and finish his political career for next Lok Sabha election,” he said in his statement.
Abhinav also alleged that the then SP Darade and police inspector Manoj Patel “reopened an old case (137/2003)” for harassing Delkar and were constantly calling him for questioning.
Abhinav said Delkar’s suicide letter says he would be left with no choice but to commit suicide if action was not taken against Patel and the harassment stopped.
ThePrint reached Patel through a WhatsApp message for a comment, but he did not reply. This report will be updated if a response is received.
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‘Insulted in public’
Abhinav also alleged that Delkar would be “insulted at public functions”, the local administration had stopped listening to him, and that he was not even being invited for government functions.
Abhinav listed several instances that led his father to “end his life”.
“My father is the MP but these people insulted him and treated him badly. He was not allowed and was stopped from giving speeches at public functions,” he said in the complaint.
Abhinav also claimed that while the local MP generally addresses the constituency during the Liberation Day festivities celebrated in Dadra and Nagar Haveli on 2 August every year, his father was not allowed to give the speech in 2020, and instead District Collector Rawat was made the chief guest for the event.
“My father is usually invited as chief guest for programmes where he delivers his speeches. This tradition has been followed for the last 66 years now. But in 2020, the collector, Rawat, became the Chief Guest and delivered the speech as well,” he said in the complaint.
Abhinav also said there were three instances when the administration did not listen to Delkar, and said no action was taken despite complaints to higher authorities. He said his father was implicated in false cases to stop him from contesting polls.
Abhinav said Delkar had filed complaints and written to PM Narendra Modi on 18 December 2020, Home Minister Amit Shah on 18 December 2020, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on 12 January 2021 and a Parliamentary standing committee chief, Bhupendra Yadav, on 13 January 2021, but no one heard him.
Delkar had left a 15-page suicide note in the hotel room, in which he had named Patel and several other government officials. He had also accused them of harassment and said he was forced by them to take the extreme step.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mazumdar)
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