BHOPAL: A businessman and his wife were found dead at their residence in Madhya Pradesh’s Sehore district on Friday morning.
Manoj Parmar and his wife Neha were found hanging at their home in Ashta.
The family said the couple was under extreme stress due to the action taken against them by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
On December 5, the ED raided four properties of Parma in Indore and Sehore as part of the probe into alleged money laundering activities in a 2017 CBI FIR.
During the raids, authorities seized documents related to several movable and immovable properties and frozen bank balances of Rs 3.5 lakh.
Parmar was also arrested in connection with a Rs 6-crore fraud case involving a state-owned bank. A suicide note was reportedly found at the scene, but police have not revealed its contents.
Parmar was recently in the spotlight when his children gifted a piggy bank to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi during the New Year. The Congress party claims that Parma has been targeted by the BJP since then.
According to Palma’s family, stress from the emergency room was the primary cause of the couple’s deaths. Palma’s brother told local media that the businessman was under considerable mental pressure due to the actions of the school board and the ongoing legal proceedings.
Former Sehore Congress district president Kailash Parmar said Manoj’s son was actively involved in supporting Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra by organizing a “Gullak” (money box) team.
Former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh also took to social media to accuse the ED of harassing Parma without any reason.
Singh wrote: “Manoj Parmar, MP from Ashta in Sehore district, was harassed by the Education Department without any valid reason. Manoj’s children were in Bharat A money box was presented to Rahul Gandhi during Chodo’s pilgrimage and his home was raided by Emergency Department Assistant Director Sanjeet Kumar Sahu.
According to Manoj, he was targeted because of his support for the Indian National Congress. I arranged legal aid for him, but it is with great sadness that I report that Manoj and his wife tragically took their own lives this morning. I ask the Director of Education to conduct an impartial investigation into this matter.
In a social media post, BJP spokesperson Narendra Saluja highlighted Parmar’s outspoken criticism of the BJP and his son’s “Gulak team”, which included Rahul ·Many Congress leaders, including Gandhi, presented piggy banks filled with donations. Saluja raised questions about the financial dealings of “Gulak’s team.”
In September 2022, the Madhya Pradesh High Court dismissed a petition filed by Manoj Parmar to quash the CBI FIR registered in December 2017.
The FIA charged him with forgery and criminal conspiracy. Palma’s petition said local police had filed a similar case in October 2017, but the High Court ruled in favor of the CBI continuing the investigation.
The charges against Parmar stem from claims that he facilitated loans worth crores of rupees under a government scheme by providing false quotes, bills and taxpayer identification numbers, although he was not involved in the lending business. His company was also found to not exist.
The local Ashtar police registered FIR No. 858/2017 in connection with a loan transaction involving Prashant Gupta, while CBI investigation into 18 loan transactions resulted in a chargesheet of fraudulent loan disbursements.
The high court noted that although the CBI registered a single FIR for the 18 transactions, each transaction was considered a different offence, and directed the CBI to proceed further with the case.
