Day before suicide, businessman called ED office in Bhopal, said he was on way to join probe: Agency

Parmar and Neha visited a temple in Susner on Thursday with their three children and returned late at night. On Friday morning, when the couple did not wake up, the elder son went to check on them and found that they had died by suicide. The police arrived around 8.30 am and sent the bodies for postmortem.

An ED official said the couple were summoned by the ED on December 9 and December 10 – four days after the conclusion of the search, to record their statements.  However, both of them failed to appear. “Their nephew Rohit Parmar came to office with the request for adjournment and the same was granted and a new date (December 12) was given. On December 10, an email was received from Manoj Parmar giving his willingness to appear for giving statement at 3.30 pm on December 12 …At 12 pm on December 12, a phone call was received at reception of the ED’s Bhopal Zonal Office, wherein Parmar stated that he was on his way and he will reach the office by 3:30, but again he failed to appear,” the official said.

Addressing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his purported suicide note, Parmar wrote that he was compelled to take the extreme step as the ED was harassing him because he “joined you (Rahul) and worked for the Congress”.  “After my death, the responsibility of these children is yours and of the Congress, so a message goes out that the party stands with its workers,” he wrote.

On December 5, the ED’s Bhopal Zonal Office conducted searches at four premises in Sehore and Indore as part of their probe against Parmar. The ED had initiated their probe based on an FIR  filed by the CBI against Parmar and a senior manager of Punjab National Bank. According to the CBI, Rs 6 crore in loans were obtained under the PM Employment Generation Programme and CM Yuva Udyami Yojana. However, these funds were allegedly diverted.

Rahul talks to couple’s children

Congress leader Sabha Rahul Gandhi  Saturday spoke with the children of the couple who died by suicide in MP. State Congress chief Jitu Patwari reached Ashta  to meet the children. Gandhi talked to the  children – two sons and a daughter – over Patwari’s phone. During the call, the couple’s elder son told Gandhi that his father chose to take his life instead of succumbing to ED’s pressure to “get them (children) to join the BJP”.