An FIR has been registered against a top Tata Steel official for allegedly abetting the suicide of Charudatta Deshpande, former chief of Corporate Communications, who was found hanging at his Vasai home here on June 28, police said today.
Prabhat Sharma, Head, Corporate Affairs of Tata Steel, Jamshedpur was booked by Vasai police under section 306 (Abetment of suicide) of the IPC, last night at about 8 PM, following a complaint by former Forbes India Editor Indrajit Gupta, they said.
According to the complaint filed by Gupta, the 57-year-old Charudatta, a Tata Steel official, was constantly humiliated and harrassed between May 2012 and May 2013 following which he took the drastic decision to end his life, police said.
Deputy Superintendent of Police, Vasai division Prashant Deshpande, is investigating the case.
According to police, Charudatta had committed suicide in June, sometime after a critical story on the company had appeared in the leading business magazine, which sparked off the alleged harrasement that became more focused and sharp after the publication of the article.
"The article was not, too, negative of Tata Steel but some Tata Steel managers perceived it so and blamed it on Charudatta. It was found that he was uncomfortable with one or two persons and the harassment by his tormentors only increased after the Forbes article," the Mumbai police had said after Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil had ordered Crime Branch to probe the alleged suicide following which the team has begun a parallel investigation into the case.
Soon after Mumbai crime branch began the probe, the investigating team had laid their hands on a piece of evidence from Charu's another residence in Borivili.
Two diaries of 2012 and 2013 were found in which Charu had mentioned about the happenings in office. And in one of the pages, he had even written notes and named some Tata Steel officials.
