Harassed by first wife, cop shoots himself dead in Mumbai

When constable Gokul Bobate (name changed) went inside inspector Shivaji Patil’s room at the Borivli police station around 8.30am, he saw his superior lying unconscious on the chair. Reaching closer, he saw blood oozing out from Patil’s right temple. Within a fraction of a second, Bobate raised an alarm.

After his colleagues rushed in, they found a .38 service revolver lying close to the chair and a suicide note.

Patil, 56, had killed himself because of harassment for money by his first wife and her two brothers. They have been arrested on charges of extortion and abetment of suicide.

Patil, a Mira Road resident, joined the police force as a constable in 1973, and had an arranged marriage with Nirmala Desai, a resident of Sewri, in 1978.

His suicide note, according to senior inspector Bhagwan Chate, stated that Desai was not happy with her marriage to a constable.

The couple separated, with Desai telling Patil he could marry another woman. Patil then married Pratibha in 1982 and had three children with her: Swati (married), Smita and Sandeep (a computer engineer based in the US).

But Patil kept hidden from his children the fact of his marriage with Desai.

Since 2004, Desai and her brothers Datta and Babban started demanding money from Patil, threatening to tell his children the secret of his first marriage.

Patil went on to pay around Rs7.5 lakh in instalments to Desai. But three months ago, Desai started demanding Rs10 lakh more.

“Desai was aware that Patil had been promoted as an officer and that his son was in the US,” Chate said. “This probably motivated her to demand more money.”

The police found another letter from Patil’s room in the police station. “It was sent by Desai through an advocate, demanding maintenance money,” a police officer said.

Patil’s body was taken to Bhagwati Hospital and then to JJ Hospital for a post-mortem.

Colleagues said Patil was a good policemen and friend. “I had merely worked for three months with Patil, but I can surely say that he was a very good officer and would never meddle in anyone’s work,” Chate said.

Desai’s counsel Vijay Thakur said: “There was a dispute between my client and the deceased person. We had issued him a notice four days ago for maintenance money. We don’t know under what influence he committed suicide.

“My client has been living away from her husband for years, and if no maintenance is paid to her, what will she do? We had also written to the police commissioner to look into the matter.”