Nitin Desai suicide case: Police notice to Edelweiss Group

An FIR in the matter was registered on Friday against five employees of ECL Finance on charges of abetment to suicide of art director Nitin Desai, after his wife Neha gave a written complaint to Raigad police.

ECL Finance had lent Rs 181 crore to Desai’s firm ND’s Art World between 2016 and 2018.

The police have so far inquired and recorded statement of 15 witnesses. A team of police officer consisting a sub-divisional police officer, one inspector, three assistant inspectors and four constables, is probing the matter.
The police team is collecting details of the loan matters from ND studio’s financial advisor, legal advisor and accountant.

Desai was found hanging in his ND studio at Karjat in Raigad district July 2 morning. In the FIR, Neha alleged that the officers of the company are responsible for causing severe mental stress to her husband.

She alleged that the employees of the creditor firm harassed her husband over loans, which led to his death by
suicide.

Desai had been facing mental harassment in connection with the loans his company had taken, and he died by suicide because of it, the FIR added.

Police recovered audio clips from Desai’s studio where he was found dead, in which he is purportedly heard requesting the government to ensure that his studio is not seized and rather used for promoting art.

The audio clips also had mention of names of some people who had driven him to commit suicide, police said.
After Desai was found dead, police had said it was a suspected case of suicide due to the Rs 252-crore debt he was facing.

An officer said that they have sent the audio notes to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to confirm its authenticity.

On July 25, the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) ordered “initiation of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP)” against Nitin Desai’s company — ND’s Art World Private Limited — in view of an outstanding debt of Rs 252.48 crore.

The bench also appointed Jitender Kothari as the interim resolution professional to carry out the steps mentioned under the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

Desai, who hailed from Dapoli, worked as an art director and production designer for several Marathi and Hindi films including Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), Lagaan (2001), Devdas (2002), Jodhaa Akbar (2008) and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015).

Desai won the national award for art direction four times and Filmfare award three times.
In 2005, he opened his ND Studios spread over nearly 50 acres at Karjat, Navi Mumbai, which has hosted movies such as Jodhaa Akbar and Colors TV’s reality show Big Boss.