New Delhi: Eight days after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided his office, a Madhya Pradesh businessman, Manoj Parmar and his wife Neha Parmar were found hanging in their home in Sehore district on Friday (December 13) morning. The couple reportedly left a suicide note claiming they were targeted because of their links with the Congress and requested the party to take care of their three children.
In a statement on Saturday, the ED denied any involvement in the double suicide, describing Manoj as a “habitual offender”.
On the same day, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi spoke with the couple’s children via the cellphone of Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari.
“My father was being pressurised to make us join the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party], but instead of giving in, he chose to end his life. The ED exerted sustained pressure on him to switch to the BJP,” the eldest son, Jatin Parmar, told Gandhi, according to The New Indian Express.
The couple’s only daughter, Jiya Parmar, broke down in tears while speaking to Gandhi over the phone. “After losing our parents, you’re our only hope. We met you during the Bharat Jodo Yatra and didn’t ask for anything then, but now we want you to visit us.”
Gandhi assured the three children, including the youngest 12-year-old Yash Parmar, of his and the Congress party’s support. He also enquired about their native place and the circumstances surrounding the tragedy. Gandhi further asked Patwari when the post-death rituals would conclude. In a video, Patwari is seen telling Gandhi that if he couldn’t visit Ashta town of Sehore district, he would bring the children to Delhi.
On December 5, the ED Bhopal zonal office raided four locations in Sehore and Indore as part of its investigation into Manoj and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The case originated from an FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in December 2017, which alleged that Manoj, with the assistance of a Punjab National Bank (PNB) official, fraudulently obtained a Rs 6 crore loan under the Pradhan Mantri Employment Generation Programme and the Chief Minister Yuva Udyami Yojana, with the funds later being diverted. Parmar had approached the court to quash the FIR, but his petition was reportedly dismissed by the high court two years ago.
Also read: Less than 5% PMLA Cases Registered by ED Resulted in Conviction Since 2019, Govt Tells Parliament
In a press release dated December 7, the ED stated that the searches targeted the residences of key individuals who were beneficiaries of the alleged bank fraud scheme. The agency claimed to have seized “various incriminating documents and details of immovable and movable properties,” along with freezing a bank account containing Rs 3.5 lakh. It also described Manoj as a “habitual offender” with several other criminal cases registered against him.
The ED claimed that the couple had been summoned to record their statements on December 9 and 10, but failed to appear. Instead, their nephew requested a postponement, which was granted for December 12. While Manoj confirmed he was on his way for the new date, he again failed to appear, and no further contact was made with the couple, according to the ED statement.
The Indian Express reported that the couple visited a temple in Susner on Thursday (December 12) with their three children and returned late at night to their residence in Sehore district. After the children went to bed, the couple retired to their room. On Friday morning, when they did not wake up, their elder son went to check on them and found that they had died by suicide.
The police reported that Manoj left behind a five-page note alleging that ED officers had assaulted him during the raid. He claimed the officers saw a picture of Congress leader Gandhi in his home and remarked that it was the reason for the raid, as per the IE report.
The typed and printed suicide note was addressed to key executive and legislative leaders, including the president of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Gandhi.
In the note, Manoj reportedly addressed Gandhi, stating that he was compelled to take this step because the ED was harassing him for “joining you and working for the Congress.”
“After my death, the responsibility of these children is yours and that of the Congress, so a message goes out that the party stands with its workers,” he wrote.
“Congress is a party of the public. We will take care of them”, Congress state party chief Patwari told PTI. He alleged that the death of the Parmar couple was not a suicide but a state-sponsored murder, claiming the ED was being misused to harass individuals and coerce them into joining the BJP.
Senior Congress leaders Digvijaya Singh and Kamal Nath expressed outrage over the deaths of Manoj and his wife, alleging political harassment. Singh posted on X on Friday that he had arranged a lawyer for the couple, but they were “so scared” that they “committed suicide”.
In a post on X on Saturday, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath claimed that Manoj committed suicide with his wife because he was harassed by the BJP government and ED officials.
Nath wrote, “The only fault of the Parmar couple was that their children had gifted a piggy bank to Shri Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra.”
BJP spokesperson Ashish Aggarwal responded saying, “Doing politics over death is the old vulture-like character of Congressmen. They are misusing this to further their personal interests”.