Businessman, Who Attempted Suicide At BJP Office In Dehradun, Dies

Dehradun:  A transporter who reached the BJP office in Uttarakhand after drinking poison two days ago died in a hospital today in state capital Dehradun. Before he had collapsed at the party office on Saturday, Prakash Pandey had blamed demonetisation and introduction of the Goods and Services Tax for ruining him and declared that he had consumed poison.

Uttarakhand Agriculture Minister Subodh Uniyal was holding a Janata Darbar (public hearing) when Mr Pandey had walked in. As Mr Pandey started speaking, he was in tears.

"The government has landed me in trouble. I am under a lot of debt due to demonetisation and GST," the businessman said.

Mr Pandey was a resident of Nai Colony in Kathgodam and had a small fleet of trucks.

The minister detailed how he had unsuccessfully sought help from the Chief Minister's office in Dehradun and the Prime Minister's Office in Delhi before telling the shocked minister and journalists that he had consumed poison to end his life.

Mr Pandey said he was unable to repay loans taken from finance companies and had already written to the prime minister, the finance minister and the BJP president seeking waiver of the interest on his loans, Uttarakhand Minister Subodh Uniyal later said, according to news agency Press Trust of India.

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The minister said a policeman and his aides had taken him to a hospital. It seems that he had consumed poison before coming to the party office, he added.

Local media reports had also pointed that in his letter to the party, he had spoken about his inability to repay a business loan he had taken and could not even pay his children's school fee.