After travelling all the way from Shivpuri district in Madhya Pradesh, a 40-year-old man on Thursday morning allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Vijay Chowk, barely 100 metres from the Parliament House.
A small-time businessman, who had reportedly lost about Rs 1 crore in cricket betting, came to Delhi on Wednesday night and after conducting a recce of the spot, allegedly committed suicide.
Identified as Ram Dayal Verma of Kotwali village in Madhya Pradesh, he was extremely disturbed over losing huge amount money on betting and is survived by his homemaker wife, two sons and two daughters.
A 23-page suicide letter, found at the spot, read, “Hum gumnami ki maut nahi marna chate hain (I don’t want to die unnoticed).”
Preliminary investigations by the police reveal that he first tied the rope to the tree on Wednesday night, but committed suicide at about 6.30 am on Thursday.
A jogger noticed his body hanging from the tree at about 7 am and informed the local police.
Verma’s eldest son, Bittu, told this newspaper over phone that his father committed suicide as he was “extremely disturbed” over huge amount of money he owed to various bookies, who had started hounding him.
“Papa used to look very disturbed. He would even get calls from people asking for their money to be returned. He would get calls late in the night. He was at home till yesterday morning, but went missing since 11 am. We were also aware of his betting activities and requested him not to indulge in it, but he was addicted to it and would think that he would win a huge amount of money some day,” sobbed Bittu.
Bittu’s uncle Jagdish said that the family came to know about the suicide after a policeman contacted them over the phone.
“We first thought that somebody was making a fool of us. But, later we realised the seriousness of the matter,” he said. The family is expected to reach the national capital late on Thursday night.
In his suicide note written in Hindi, Verma claimed that he was under immense financial crunch and had undergone tremendous losses in betting during national cricket tournaments.
“It is written in the note that he had lost a huge amount of money by betting with different persons. He mentioned that he lost Rs13 lakhs to a Manoj Gupta, Rs 2 lakhs to a Nisan Ansari and various amounts of money to Haseen Kabadi, Jugal Bansal, Pappu and Babloo. The total amount exceeded Rs 1 crore,” said a police source privy to the investigation.
“A magisterial inquiry has been ordered and investigations are on into the matter,” Jatin Narwal, deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi), said, adding that Verma’s body has been sent for autopsy.
