MUMBAI: Home minister R R Patil has handed over the probe into the suicide of Charudatta Deshpande (57), former journalist and Tata Steel's ex-head of corporate communications, to the crime branch. Patil said the state CID will assist in the inquiry. He directed the crime branch to immediately send teams to Jamshedpur and Thane, where Deshpande lived.
The probe will ascertain if there was any coercion, intimidation or any other criminal act that led to Deshpande ending his life. "A crime branch team has visited Vasai and is examining call records, emails and important witnesses. We will take the probe to a logical conclusion and if need be call the Tata Steel management to record their statements in due course," joint police commissioner (crime) Himanshu Roy told TOI.
A Tata Steel spokesperson stated in an email, "We will offer our full cooperation, if required." Friends and ex-colleagues of Deshpande, who committed suicide at his Vasai home on June 28, had alleged that he had been harassed at work. Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry has ordered a departmental inquiry into the circumstances leading to Deshpande's death. Patil's directive came after a delegation from the Mumbai Press Club demanded that the investigation into the case be scaled up and shifted from the Vasai police to a more competent agency. The delegation appealed to Patil that Deshpande's death should not be closed as a case of "accidental death".
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