Maharashtra: Freedom fighter’s widow, two children end lives in Vashi over ‘financial issues’ and ‘injustice’

NAVI MUMBAI: Three family members of a freedom fighter ended their lives due to “financial problems” by consuming poison at their Vashi home on Saturday, the police said.
A note purportedly signed by the three — Mohini Kamwani (87), her son Dilip (67) and her physically challenged daughter Kanta (63) — states that they were ending their lives over “injustice”.
Earlier, Mohini had told the media that her husband, Naraindas Kamwani, had participated in the Quit India movement with Gandhiji.
Senior inspector of Vashi police station, Ramesh Chavan, said that Dilip had called up the police control room around 7.30 am on Saturday. “He said that he, his mother and sister had consumed poison due to financial problems, and were experiencing discomfort.”
Chavan said that a few police personnel rushed to their home and took them to NMMC Hospital, Vashi. While the daughter died about an hour later, the widow and her son died the same evening.
The police officer claimed that Dilip, in his police statement given at the hospital, said that they had consumed a chemical, rat poison, and some pills “as they were depressed due to a financial crisis”.
Chavan said they found bottles of a pest-killer chemical and rat poison at their flat. “The four-page suicide note states that the Supreme Court, high court, Central government and police are responsible” for spurring them to take the drastic step as they “did not render them justice in their legal battle”, said Chavan. The note also mentions a loan of Rs 3 lakh besides a deal to sell their flat.
A high court advocate, Vinod Gangwal who had earlier represented the Kamwanis in a legal fight against police harassment said: “In 2014, I got FIRs registered through a court against four senior officers of Navi Mumbai police over the illegal arrest of Mohini and Dilip. “It’s shocking that they ended their lives as they were tough fighters. I have demanded an independent inquiry.” He said Mohini and her son were arrested in 2012 for threatening to commit suicide if an FIR was not filed against certain relatives.
“The Kamwanis had monetary and trespass issues with some relatives, but the police were not registering a case,” said Gangwal.