Businessman arrested for abetment to suicide 10 days after 7 of a family found dead in Surat

Manish Solanki, a businessman, was believed to have died by suicide due to financial troubles after killing his wife, three children, and parents. On Wednesday Solanki’s former business partner, Inderpal Sharma (42), was arrested for allegedly pressurising him to pay dues worth Rs 20 lakh. Sharma runs a hardware store, and Solanki had earlier partnered with him to run the business, officials said.

Solanki’s suicide note recovered from his house, according to police, mentioned Sharma’s name. Ghansyam Parmar, Solanki’s brother-in-law, on Wednesday registered a complaint with Adajan police station, alleging that Solanki poisoned his family members on October 28, and later died by suicide due to the pressure created by Inderpal Sharma.

An FIR has been lodged under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code against Sharma.
On the arrest, Adajan police inspector R B Gojiya said, “We had recovered a note from the house of Solanki, which contained details about his partnership with Sharma in the hardware and plywood business. Sharma runs Nidhi Plywood business shop at Bhatar. In the suicide note, the deceased mentioned that Sharma was demanding money. He was allegedly pushing Solanki to take a loan and pay his dues to the firm. We are trying to dig out more information about how much money the accused was demanding from the deceased. At present, we believe that the amount was Rs 20 lakh.”

After the suicide note was discovered, police questioned Solanki’s family members about the business partnership.

More than 80 people were questioned amid a deepening probe into the matter, The Indian Express reported last week. Police had also confirmed that the handwriting in the suicide note was that of Solanki.

Solanki, who ran a furniture business, was found hanging at his house. He also allegedly poisoned his wife Rita (32), and children Disha (7), Kavya (5), and Khushal (3), his father Kantilal Solanki (65), and mother Shobhna (60).
Later during the investigation, strangulation marks were found on the necks of Shobhna and Disha. Police believe that Solanki had killed his mother and daughter by strangulation.

A complaint of murder was also registered against him.

Last week, Deputy Commissioner of Police Zone-5 RP Barot had said that Solanki was believed to facing “mental stress at work”.

“We talked to his family friend, a doctor, and found that he was under mental stress at work and was taking sleeping pills regularly as advised by him. He was also holding contracts for interior works of newly constructed flats and his work included electrification and plumbing work. He was overburdened for giving the flats timely to customers,” he said.