Borge death suicide: GRP

A day after the Anil Ambani helicopter sabotage case took a bizarre turn with Air Works technician Bharat Borge being found dead....

A day after the Anil Ambani helicopter sabotage case took a bizarre turn with Air Works technician Bharat Borge being found dead on the tracks between Santa Cruz and Vile Parle railway stations,the Government Railway Police on Wednesday stated that his death was definitely an act of suicide.

Borge was the first person to notice pebbles and mud inside the filter tank of Ambanis Bell 412 helicopter on April 23,following which a complaint was filed by Anil Dirubhai Ambani Group alleging that a business rival had engineered the sabotage with the intention of killing Ambani. Borge was one of six persons questioned by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch in connection with the attempted sabotage.

Alleging foul play,Borges family has demanded a CBI probe into his death.

While GRP officials remained tight-lipped on the investigations into his death,they revealed that statements of two eyewitnesses to the death the motorman of the Churchgate fast train,which ran over Borge,and a gateman were recorded on Wednesday. In his statement,the motorman told us that he alerted Borge by honking several times,but he did not move out of the way. This is a case of suicide, said Assistant Commissioner of Police,Andheri Section,P D Sawant.

In a note recovered from Borges pocket and addressed to an inspector of the Bandra Crime Branch unit,he wrote that he feared he would be used in the case as two Reliance officials had taken his number.

The Crime Branch on Wednesday said Borge was never a suspect in the case and he was aiding the investigators. His death will not affect our case as we had recorded his statement on Sunday,and we have other witnesses in the case. We are not probing into his death; that is being handled by the GRP. We have not summoned any Reliance officials for questioning. Today,we have questioned three employees of the maintenance company,Air Works,in the case pertaining to the sabotage, said Joint Commissioner of Police Crime Rakesh Maria.

Borges family has raised doubts over the nature of his death. Since the incident,he had been very tense,but he was not the kind of person who would commit suicide, said Sambhaji Botre 38 who is Borges cousin from Satara.