MPs term Mohan Delkar death 'strike on dignity of Parliament', demand Dadra-Nagar Haveli administrator's removal

Several Lok Sabha members on Wednesday sought action against the Dadra and Nagar Haveli administrator Praful Kheda Patel over the death of MP Mohan Delkar. Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Shiv Sena MP Vinayak Raut said the administrators of the Union territory had made life “miserable” for Delkar, who was found dead in a hotel at the Marine Drive area of south Mumbai on 22 February. Delkar, 58, a seven-time MP from Dadra and Nagar Haveli, had left a 15-page suicide note. “I demand suspension of the SP, collector and administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli,” Raut said. JD(U) MP Kaushalendra Kumar demanded that the administrator should be removed. “If a member of Parliament is not safe, then how will people feel safe?” Kumar asked. According to a report in The Hindu, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule and other MPs also submitted a memorandum to Speaker Om Birla, saying, they were shocked by the death of the seven-time MP from the UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. “The fact that a seven-time MP was frustrated to such an extent that it would drive him to extreme despair and steps to end his life is traumatic for all of us… We have lost a fellow member. It is not just a loss of life but also a strike on the dignity of (the) Parliament. The independence and supremacy of Parliament rests on the discharge of duties by its members free of any fear or duress,” read the memorandum, according to the report. The memorandum was signed by Congress’ Shashi Tharoor, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav and members of the Shiv Sena, the DMK, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the report added. Mumbai Police has registered an FIR on the charge of abetment to suicide in connection with the death, an officer said on Wednesday. The FIR was registered on Tuesday after Delkar’s family members visited the Marine Drive police station and lodged a complaint, the official added. Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday announced that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) will probe the alleged suicide of Delkar. Deshmukh said in the state Assembly that Delkar’s suicide note stated that the Union Territory’s administrator Praful Kheda Patel was harassing the MP. Delkar’s wife and son met Chief Minister UddhavThackeray at the Vidhan Bhavan here on Tuesday. Later, talking to reporters, his son Abhinav Delkarclaimed Patel “left no stone unturned to humiliate” the deceased. With inputs from PTI