Political row erupts after bizman, wife die by suicide in MP

A businessman and his wife hanged themselves in Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh on Friday, triggering sharp exchanges between the Congress and the ruling BJP.

The Congress claimed that victims Manoj Parmar and his wife were party supporters and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) harassed them over their political leanings. The couple's children had gifted their piggybank to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his ‘Bharat Jodo (Nyaya) Yatra’, said the party's MP chief Jitu Patwari.

The BJP hit back at the Opposition party, accusing it of “playing politics over death”. The police said Parmar and his wife died by suicide in Ashta town in the morning.

Patwari, who visited Parmar's family, termed the deaths “state murder”. He said the ED raided Parmar as he was a Congress supporter. His party colleague Digvijaya Singh also levelled similar charges.

According to Ashta's Sub-Divisional Officer of Police Akash Amalkarm, cops are yet to ascertain why the couple took the extreme step.

Meanwhile, ED's Bhopal zonal official said that the agency carried out search operations on December 5 on four premises in MP's Sehore and Indore districts in connection with the matter of Parmar and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The search covered the residential premises of the key persons, who were the beneficiaries of the “proceeds of crime” or had actively aided or abetted such persons in a bank fraud, the ED said, and claimed to have recovered “incriminating” documents.

The ED said it recorded the statements of certain persons during the raid and a bank balance of Rs 3.5 lakh was frozen. The details of four immovable properties of the key persons were also found during the searches, it said.

As per the statement, the ED launched an investigation based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Parmar and a senior branch manager of PNB.

The ED has alleged that loans worth nearly Rs 6 crore were availed under the Pradhan Mantri Employment Generation Programme and Chief Minister Yuva Udyami Yojana but the funds were diverted to proprietorship concerns or firms and were subsequently withdrawn in cash for investment in properties. The ED investigation was underway, said the statement.

Madhya Pradesh BJP's media in-charge Ashish Agrawal condemned the Congress' allegations over the couple's suicide.

“Doing politics over death is the old vulture-like character of Congressmen! Suicide of anyone is sad but Congressmen misuse it only to further their personal interests. Before making baseless allegations, both Singh and Patwari and Congressmen should know the case history,” he said in a statement. PTI