Ahmedabad-based businessman Dhirubhai Patel had written a seven-page letter two days before he consumed pesticide, reports Mumbai Mirror.
The Ahmedabad trader, accused of raping his business partner's wife, left a message for his alleged victim before consuming pesticide on July 22. In his suicide note, Dhirubhai Patel, who is battling for life at Nair Hospital, said, “By consuming four sleeping pills, she can't prove she was raped… she will have to finish a whole bottle to kill herself.”
Patel, in his seven-page suicide note written in Gujarati two days before he attempted suicide, says he was framed by his business partner and his wife because he refused to give them the money they frequently demanded.
Earlier this month, after the City Sessions Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea and Ahmedabad police interrogated his wife, Patel was suffering from severe depression, his relatives say. Expressing his hopelessness, the trader of imitation jewellery wrote, “I, Dhirubhai, have not gone home for the past 40 days and do not even wish to.”
In the letter that was found in his bag, Patel said the 26-year-old woman had insisted he stay at the same hotel. The couple and Patel were at a Grant Road hotel on June 2. They had come to Mumbai the previous day to explore business opportunities.
The woman had alleged that he raped her twice in the one hour that her husband was away on work. Patel's lawyer Rajesh Thakur said that though the woman alleged she was raped on June 2, she did not tell her husband about the incident till June 12. “They were in Mumbai for four days after the ‘incident'. But it was only ten days later that she attempted suicide in Ahmedabad and made the charge.”
The 40-year-old's note gives details of instances when his partner had allegedly blackmailed him for money. “What is shocking is that even after framing me for rape, the husband asked Rs 5 lakh from me over a phone call,” Patel states. He adds that the husband had threatened him before she made the allegation of rape.
“He demanded Rs 20,000 from me which I refused to give him. He got furious and threatened to file a case of misbehaviour with his wife against me. His friend Rajubhai intervened and asked me to pay up Rs 75,000, which was eventually lowered to Rs 50,000 and finally to Rs 10,000.
I refused as I had done no wrong. I have recorded this entire conversation on my mobile phone and have made a cassette of it.” The note says that the couple and the friend Rajubhai should be held responsible if he dies.
Patel's wife has registered a case of harassment and attempts to extort money against the couple in Ahmedabad, Thakur said.
N R Mali, senior inspector of D B Marg police, said, “Our concern is limited only to the rape case against Patel. The case was transferred here from Ahmedabad as the alleged incident occurred in our jurisdiction. As for Patel's letter or his wife's complaint, it is for the Ahmedabad police to look into it.”
Patel was hiding in Mumbai since the case was registered against him. On July 22, he gulped down pesticide on his way to D B Marg police station. When he reached, he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital by the cops.
