CBI inquiry to only focus on harassment allegations, not BK Bansal's suicide

The ongoing internal inquiry initiated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against its officials in connection to the suicide of former Corporate Affairs Director-General BK Bansal will only focus on the allegations of harassment leveled by the deceased bureaucrat in his seven-page suicide letter. dna has learnt that investigators of the probe agency are likely to stay clear of the alleged suicide and instead focus on the harassment allegation alone, leaving Delhi Police as the only authority to crack the case. While the mandate to probe the alleged suicide does lie with the Delhi Police, it is imperative to mention that if found guilty in the internal inquiry, the erring officials are only likely to be taken to task for the alleged harassment they meted out to Bansal and his family.

"It is the mandate of Delhi Police to probe the alleged suicide. On our part, we will be probing if the allegations of harassment, as leveled by the deceased in a suicide note purportedly written by him, are correct. If so, appropriate action will be taken against officials named by the deceased," said a senior CBI official. It is imperative to mention that a first information report is yet to be filed in the case almost a week after the incident took place. Instead police have started inquest proceedings into the alleged suicide case where police generally book accused persons abatement to suicide — Section 306 of Indian Penal Code. In cases where a suicide note accusing an individual or individuals is found from the scene of crime police can book the accused under Dying Declaration-Section 32(1) of the Indian Evidence Act. Senior Delhi police officials overlooking the case did not receive calls or respond to text messages sent by dna to inquire about the status of the proceedings on Sunday evening.

Bansal, who was from Indian Corporate Law Service (ICLS) and was arrested by the CBI on the charge of receiving Rs 9 lakh bribes for extending favours to a Mumbai-based firm on July 16, merely three months before he was due for retirement.

Bansal and his son, Yogesh were found hanging from ceiling fans by their maid last week. The incident comes only two months after Bansal's wife Satyabala, 57, and daughter Neha, 27, committed suicide by hanging themselves on July 19, three days after his arrest. Bansal himself was granted bail in August but allegedly took the extreme step last week owing to harassment and "torture" that his family witnessed at the hands of some officials of the CBI, as claimed in the suicide note.

What does the suicide note say about CBI officials?

"I am committing suicide because of the torture by the CBI. On the night of July 18 and in the morning of July 19, CBI lady officers Ms Rekha Sangwan and Ms Amrita Kaur badly tortured my wife and daughter. My wife had narrated about it to her friends and neighbours before committing suicide. They slapped my wife several times, dug their nails into her and abused her. DIG Sanjeev Gautam also told them to torture," said the suicide note allegedly written by Bansal. It adds, "In front of me, DIG Sanjeev Gautam told a lady officer in the afternoon of July 18 to torture so much that mother and daughter become as good as dead. I pleaded with the DIG but he said his name would send shivers down to my next generation, they will remember the CBI. He himself ordered the two lady officers in front of me to commit death-like torture. He is as much responsible as the two lady officers, Ms Rekha Sangwan and Amrita Kaur. Besides them, one fat constable also misbehaved with my wife and tortured her and mouthed nasty abuses at my wife and daughter. If it was my mistake, then why were my wife and daughter tortured and made to commit suicide?

"This was simply a murder of two women and it cannot be called suicide. DIG Sanjeev Gautam, the two lady officers and the fat constable should undergo a lie-detector test and the exact truth will come out. DIG had said 'I am Amit Shah's man. Who can touch me?' He said he would make the condition of my wife and daughter such that those who will hear about it will tremble," the letter stated