KALYAN: The police team probing the suicide of builder Asif Zojwala has registered a case against two people, including a Delhi resident, for allegedly provoking him to take the extreme step. Police said the duo promised Zojwala they would make him the chairman of the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) and duped him of Rs 7 crore.
Earlier, his family suspected he was upset with the auction of his property by the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) for not paying open land tax and may have ended his life for that reason.
On March 3, Zojwala was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his bungalow Rani Mansion on Kalyan-Murbad Road in Kalyan (west). His two properties—one in Kalyan and another in Titwala—were auctioned as he failed to pay Rs 7.5 crore open land tax (OLT).
But after his death, Zojwala’s wife found some documents through which she learned that Asif was upset with harassment by two people identified as Sanjay Ghosh and
Pravin Singh. Police sources said Asif's wife found that since June 2014 till March, both, on the pretext of ‘giving’ him the post of Cidco chairman (a political appointment), duped him of Rs7crore. Cidco is the planning authority for Navi Mumbai.
Acting on the wife’s complaint, the Mahatma Phule police on Thursday finally registered an abetment to suicide and cheating case against Ghosh and Singh. Sources said Ghosh is a resident of Upvan, Thane, while Singh lives in New Delhi.
Senior police inspector Prakash Londe of Mahatma Phule police station said, “Further probe is on.” Sources said both accused are attached with political parties. Zojwala himself was president of the BJP’s minority cell in Kalyan.
(Representative image)