Charu Deshpande suicide case: Crime Branch begins probe

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil has ordered Mumbai Crime Branch chief Himanshu Roy to probe the alleged suicide of Tata Steel's former head of corporate communications, following which the officer's team has begun a parallel investigation into the case.

Charudatta Deshpande, Tata Steel's 57-year-old former chief of Corporate Communications, was found hanging at his Vasai home on June 28. No suicide note was found. His friends and former colleagues alleged that he had been harassed.

A case has been registered at Vasai police station and the police are already probing the matter.

"I have received orders from the Home Minister, following which a parallel investigation is being done by my team. I am personally looking into the case," Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Himanshu Roy told PTI.

One of the crime branch teams today visited Vasai police station to meet the investigating officers there and collected the case documents, police said.

The crime branch is also going through the technical data such as phone calls and emails received by Deshpande, days before he ended his life.

"There were allegations that Deshpande committed suicide following harassment by the employees of Tata Steel, where he had worked. We will look into that angle. If required, a team would be sent to Jamshedpur for the purpose of probe," said another crime branch official.