MUMBAI: Mohan Delkar, a seven-term MP from Dadra and Nagar Haveli, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in a Mumbai hotel on Monday afternoon, Mumbai police said. The police also found a multi-page suicide note written in Gujarati by Delkar (58), an independent MP, from his hotel room. They said there are some names mentioned in the note, but refused to divulge details. They will send a report to Parliament about it. An assistant commissioner of police is heading the probe.
Delkar is survived by his wife and two children. Police said the family was on its way to Mumbai to claim the body.
Delkar had won six consecutive elections from the UT constituency between 1989 and 2009. He won the 1989, 1991 and 1996 elections as a Congress candidate and the 1998 election with BJP. He won the 1999 and 2004 elections as an independent and a BNP candidate. He rejoined Congress and unsuccessfully contested in 2009 and 2014. He, however, won the seat in the 17th Lok Sabha elections as an independent.
A senior officer said Delkar had checked into Sea Green South Hotel at Marine Drive on Sunday night. “His driver, who had checked into an adjacent room, first knocked on Delkar’s hotel room on the fifth floor around 11.30am on Monday. Delkar did not open it. After repeatedly knocking on the door, the driver panicked and informed a hotel employee who brought along a master key. They tried opening the door using the master key but failed since the door was double-locked from inside,” said a senior police officer.
The driver, along with Delkar’s bodyguard and hotel employee, went to his own room, looked at Delkar’s balcony from his own and found Delkar’s window was slightly ajar. “The driver jumped from his balcony to Delkar’s balcony, a distance of barely five feet, and got into the room through the window where he found Delkar hanging from the fan,” said the officer. The driver immediately opened the main door to let in the hotel employee and Delkar’s bodyguard. This happened around 2pm. The hotel authorities then informed Marine Drive police about it.
“Police are at the spot. A suicide note has been found. Investigation is on. The exact cause of death will be known after a post-mortem is conducted,” deputy police commissioner and city police spokesperson Chaitanya S stated in a message. Delkar’s body was sent to J J Hospital for a post-mortem.
Marine Drive police, which registered an accidental death case, was busy recording statements of the witnesses till the time of going to press.
Investigators said Delkar had used a shawl to hang himself. He had placed a wooden stool on top of his bed, climbed on it and is suspected to have pushed it aside to end his life. “It seems he had brought the shawl to the hotel. We are probing all the possible aspects,” said an officer.
A team of experts from Kalina Forensic Science Laboratory was called in too. Police personnel from state CID (on deputation to city police) visited the spot as well. They collected fingerprints and went through the suicide note.
“We have to get the old handwritten piece of Delkar to examine the handwriting. A handwriting expert will do the job. We will take help from an official translator to translate the suicide note,” said the officer.