Corporate Affairs Ministry official’s wife, daughter commit suicide in Delhi

New Delhi, July 19 (IANS) Upset over two CBI raids at their residence within three days, the wife and daughter of arrested Ministry of Corporate Affairs senior official B.K. Bansal allegedly committed suicide here on Tuesday.

Satyabala Bansal, 57, and Neha Bansal, 27, were found hanging from ceiling fans in different rooms of their first-floor flat in Neelkanth Apartments in east Delhi's Madhu Vihar area, police said.

The tragedy came to light when two housemaids came out of the flat and shouted for help. After security guards and the housing society manager rushed to the flat, Satyabala was found hanging from the ceiling fan.

Society manager Raghuvir Singh told IANS: "When we entered the room, we found Satyabala hanging. The other two rooms were locked."

The police said it received a call around 2 p.m. and broke open the door to the second room, where Neha was found hanging from the ceiling fan.

"We have seized two suicide notes stating that no one should be held responsible for their extreme step," Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Rishi Pal told IANS.

Another senior police officer said: "The daughter, in her suicide note, has written that they were feeling humiliated after the central agency's raids and that's why they are taking this extreme step."

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had raided their flat on Saturday and Monday morning, a neighbour told IANS.

Raghuvir Singh said B.K. Bansal was mistaken to be a retired chartered accountant. "He was a very nice man and used to help persons around him," Singh added.

He said that documents and papers were found lying scattered in the third room of the flat, which may be due to the CBI raids.

As for the whereabouts of Bansal's property dealer son Yogesh Bansal, 29, Singh said: "We tried to contact him, but his mobile phone number is switched off. We haven't seen him for the past three-four days."

B.K. Bansal, Directgor General in the Corporate Affairs Ministry, was arrested on bribery charge on Monday by the CBI. Bansal was detained on Saturday on charge of receiving Rs 9 lakh from Mumbai-based Elder Pharmaceuticals.

An alleged middleman Vishwadeep Bansal, who worked as the firm's distributor, was also arrested. The CBI had also booked company chief operating officer Anuj Saxena.

During investigation, the CBI is said to have found that the senior officer owned 20 properties in Haryana's Sirsa, Gurgaon and Faridabad as well as Delhi. All the properties were bought in the last two years and most were in the names of Bansal, his wife and son.