SC/ST commission issues notice to IG

Nagpur: CL Thool, member of the Maharashtra scheduled caste and scheduled tribe (SC/ST) commission, issued notice to the inspector general (IG), Nagpur range, in the suicide case of social worker Arvind Bansod. The commission, which had to intervene following allegations of murder being projected as suicide, sought replies within a week.
Bansod was found unconscious in front of the gas agency of Mithilesh Umarkar, alias Mayur, at Thadipauni on May 27. Umarkar, who has procured anticipatory bail, is a local panchayat samiti member from NCP.
State home minister Anil Deshmukh, in whose constituency the controversial death took place, assured of a fair probe into the matter by a senior level official.
SP rural Rakesh Ola said an offence was registered against Umarkar and two others for abetment to commit suicide. “We have also shifted the probe to sub-divisional police officer and also invoked the Prevention of Atrocity Act. Statements are being recorded before the magistrates,” he said. “Prima facie, it’s a case of death due to poisoning but we are probing from all angles,” he said.
A senior officer associated with the probe said Gajanan Raut — a friend of Bansod — was the only eyewitness who had also furnished a written application before him, stating Bansod had committed suicide. The statement of the medical shop owner has been recorded and the bill seized, the officer added.
Earlier, Bansod and Umarkar had a scuffle after the former had clicked some pictures of Umarkar’s gas agency. It’s learnt that Bansod and Raut, both residents of Pipaldhara, were heading to withdraw cash from an ATM at Thadipaoni when they had stopped to click photographs of Umarkar’s gas agency.
It was after the scuffle that Bansod had asked Raut to get his bike refuelled from a petrol pump, while he stayed back at the place where the scuffle had taken place.
Raut was shocked to see Bansod lying motionless at the place after he returned. Bansod was taken to a primary health centre at Jalalkheda, and then shifted to a rural hospital at Katol. He was later referred to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), where Bansod was declared dead on May 29. His post-mortem was conducted at GMCH too.