Year on, probe gathers dust in police files

HISAR/NEWDELHI: “..I am distressed at my wife and daughter’s suicide/murder by the CBI. I have no desire to live and am taking my life.”

BK Bansal, ex-director general, corporate affairs.

“…God, whatever happened to us should not happen to any happy family.”

Yogesh (BK Bansal’s son) The dead don’t speak. The manner of their deaths do.

On September 28, 2016 two handwritten suicide notes signed by Bansal and his 25-year-old son were delivered to media houses across the city, a day after the two were found hanging in their flat BK Bansal and wife Satyabala in Delhi. Bansal’s wife Satyabala (57), and daughter Neha (27) had killed themselves in the same flat in July after he was arrested on charges of accepting a bribe from a pharmaceutical company.

In the note, Bansal (63), under investigation for corruption charges, mentioned names of CBI officers who he alleged tortured his wife and daughter. Bansal said the two were tortured and threatened by four CBI officials, forcing them to commit suicide.

A year to the day since Delhi police began investigations into the deaths, there is very little progress in the cases, sources in the force said, and none of the officers named in the suicide notes have been questioned.

To put it in perspective, police arrested a man on Tuesday afternoon within hours of the suicide of a woman who had named him in her letter.

HT mailed a detailed questionnaire to the CBI and Delhi police seeking comments on the Bansal case but is yet to get any reply. Spokespersons of the two agencies also did not respond to repeated calls.

Most police officers say Bansal’s family member were not pursuing the case.

The relatives said no police officer came to meet them. There was no one to speak for the Bansals.

HT travelled to Bansal’s ancestral village in Hisar, Haryana, about 180 km from the national capital, to meet who remains in the Bansal family.

HISAR

In his ancestral village at sector 14, Hisar, Bansal is referred to as ‘Babuji’ and ‘Sir’. He was one of the few to leave the village and make it big in India’s capital city.

Locals spoke fondly of the man but refused to be named, saying they had read in newspapers that the accused officers were close to senior politicians.

“Auto mode mein chal raha hoga case (the case must be proceeding automatically). We have no knowledge,” said Vinod, the son of Bansal’s elder brother Pawan, at his shop in Gandhi Chowk. He also spoke of “troubles” since the deaths.

“Please don’t click our photographs. We have had enough troubles. After media reported the suicide notes and it made the headlines, a CBI team came to our house saying they were enquiring the role of their officers but it turned out to be our interrogation,” he told HT.