Panchkula: 76-year-old owner of 3 fuel stations kills himself

PANCHKULA: A 76-year-old Mohali resident committed suicide by hanging himself at Red Bishop, Sector 1, here, late on Wednesday night. Owner of three petrol pumps, he has accused Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) officials of harassing him.
Cops said Guru Kirpal Singh Chawla — a resident of Sector 69, Mohali, and owner of fuel stations at Mohali’s Phase 7, Daon village (between Kharar and Mohali) and Fatehgarh Sahib by the name Chawla Filling Station — was found hanging in his hotel room. Red Bishop staff told police that Chawla had checked in at 7.30pm and directly went to his room. Around 9.30pm, when his family members called him, his driver picked up the phone, saying he was at Red Bishop. They asked him to immediately check Chawla’s room and they also rushed there.
The driver knocked the door, and when it was not answered, he called the hotel staff, who broke open the lock. They were shocked to see Chawla hanging from the ceiling fan. Manager of the hotel called up the cops and in the meantime the family also reached there.
A police team, along with forensic experts, rushed to the spot and after collecting samples and other evidence, took the body to the mortuary of the Sector 6 civil hospital. In a suicide note found in the room, the victim has allegedly mentioned names of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited officials for harassing him and creating trouble in his business. The body was handed over to the family after the postmortem on Thursday.
Sources said Chawla was disturbed due to problems in his business and had mentioned it to his family a number of times. Before going out of his house on Wednesday, he had told his family members that he would commit suicide.
Sub-inspector Rakesh Kumar, in charge of Sector 7 police post, said, “The victim checked in alone at the hotel and nobody went to his room. The suicide note will be verified by the experts before starting investigation against the names mentioned in it.”
Cops have registered a case under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC at Sector 5 police station.
‘He wanted Mohali fuel prices same as UT’
Mohali Petrol Pump Association president Ashwinder Mongia said this was a very unfortunate and sad incident. “Kirpal Chawla was fighting to take petrol and diesel prices on a par with Chandigarh. In July 2019, during a press conference, he had sought permission from the Punjab government and Union ministry for committing suicide as his business was running into losses. We sat on a hunger strike together in 2016 and then politicians assured us that they would take up the issue with the Centre. All filling station owners in Mohali are facing losses, as people prefer to go to Chandigarh or Panchkula, where diesel is Rs 2 and petrol is Rs 5 cheaper. Our tie-up with truck unions also ended as they also preferred Chandigarh or Panchkula. On the other side, oil mafia is active in Mohali.”