BJP MLA Puran Chand Yogi commits suicide

NEW DELHI: Puran Chand Yogi, a sitting BJP MLA from Rajinder Nagar and the party's candidate from theconstituency for the Delhi assembly polls, allegedly committed suicide at his residence here on Sunday.
    
Yogi, 73, was found hanging from the ceiling of his house in Inderpuri in south-west Delhi at around 7.15 am by his wife Asha, a senior police officer said.
    
The three-time MLA was pitted against Ramakant Goswami of the Congress in the elections and was actively campaigning in the constituency.
    
His wife told police that Yogi had woken up at around 5 am and asked for the keys to an upper floor room where his election materials were kept. At around 7.15 am, his wife went upstairs only to find him hanging, the officer said.
    
Earlier, his family sources had said that the MLA had died following a heart attack.
    
Yogi, formerly working with the Indian Oxygen Ltd, has a son and a daughter.
    
Senior BJP leader and the party's chief ministerial candidate V K Malhotra visited the MLA's residence.
    
Born in Gujaranwala district of Pakistan in 1935, Yogi had been active in politics since 1967. He was first elected to the assembly in 1993 and was re-elected in 1998 and 2003.
    
In the last assembly polls, he had defeated Raj Kumar Kohli of Congress by 891 votes.
    
"In all probability, the election in Rajinder Nagar will be postponed and we will ask for a new candidate from the party," a Delhi election official said.
    
A large number of BJP workers and locals gathered at Yogi's residence to pay their last respects to the departed leader.
    
Besides Malhotra, Delhi BJP chief Harsh Vardhan and other local leaders also went to his Inderpuri residence.
    
The postmortem of the body was conducted at the Safdarjung Hospital.
    
"The report is awaited. We are investigating the matter," a senior police officer said.

Yogi received phone calls since early morning as he was scheduled to go for Pandav Nagar at 8 am to campaign. The last call he received was from party's local leader Malti Verma at around 6:35 am, a neighbour of the deceased said.
 
"After receiving that call, he went upstairs leaving behind his mobile, and when another call came at around 7.10, his wife took the mobile upstairs only to find him dead," the neighbour, who was among first to reach the spot, said.
 
"It seems the incident took place between 6.40 and 7 am," he said.
 
J S Bhogal, another neighbour who brought the body on ground, refused to give details to media but said "Whatever information I had, I have given it to police and authorities concerned."
 
Meanwhile, Delhi Police spokesman ACP Rajan Bhagat said "initial investigation suggested it to be a case of suicide. We, therefore, sent the body for post-mortem. The post-mortem report will explain the actual cause of death."
 
No suicide note was found on the spot, he said.
 
Rajiv Yogi, Yogi's son who is settled in Gurgaon, said: "I request people to maintain privacy."
 
Rajiv, a software engineer, said his father was "under tremendous pressure due to the elections".
 
Local Gurudwara Sangh Sabha Inderpuri cancelled a function scheduled for today to celebrate Guru Nanak Dev's birth anniversary because of Yogi's sudden death. Yogi and Congress and BSP candidates were supposed to take part in it.

Another person, close to the deceased's family said Yogi was an emotional man. He sometimes become very emotional and in the last elections also he was a bit nervous and emotional.
    
"Yogi, who regularly use to perform yoga for two hours and attend 'shakha', was going to win this elections. I don't know why this happened," another neighbour said.
    
Yogi was cremated later on Sunday eveing at the Narayana crematorium.