State govt transfers Tata official’s death case to CBI

His friends and former colleagues had alleged he was harassed by the employees of Tata Steel.

The Maharashtra government has transferred to the CBI the case of alleged suicide of Tata Steel’s former head of corporate communications, Charudatta Deshpande.

Deshpande (57), a former journalist and Tata Steel’s former chief of corporate communications, was found hanging at his Vasai home on June 28 last year. Though no suicide note was found from the house, his friends and former colleagues had alleged he was harassed by the employees of Tata Steel.

A case was registered at Vasai police station. Vasai police and Mumbai Crime Branch conducted joint investigations into the death, though no breakthrough was achieved. “The case has now been transferred to the CBI,” an official at Home Department said Friday.

Mumbai Press Club, in a statement, said, “Acceding to requests, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil on Thursday transferred the probe into Deshpande’s suicide to the CBI.”

The release claimed, “Both the family members of Charu (as he was popularly known) as well as the Mumbai Press Club had earlier given separate letters to the Home Minister stating that the investigation into charges of abetment against Tata Steel officers had run aground and was deliberately not being pursued by the Thane Rural Police.”

Vasai police station comes in Thane Rural jurisdiction.

In a separate and recent development, the Tata Steel board has made an offer of monetary compensation to Charu’s wife Nivedita Deshpande, and the members of the family are considering the offer, the club claimed.

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