Did this notice drive Raj Travels' owner to suicide?

Around 930 am yesterday Lalit Sheth mdash the 56yearold chairman of Raj Travels mdashwrapped up a meeting at Andheri and headed towards his office near Girgaum Chowpatty At about 110 pm while traversing the sea link Sheth requested his driver Ajit Jha to stop the car as he wanted to make a phone call and then instructed the latter to leave him there and take the vehicle to the office That was the last time anyone saw Sheth alive His body was later fished out of the waters near Worli Koliwada Lalit Shethrsquos body was fished out of the waters near Worli Interestingly a notice from the official receiver of Bombay high court was pasted outside the travel agency suggesting a legal dispute has been raging Police are investigating whether this was one of the factors that prompted Sheth to take his own life The Court notice pasted at the office of Raj travels at Girgaum PicsAtulKamble Suresh KK Datta Kumbhar lsquoMissedrsquo call Around 130 pm Ajit tried to call his boss on his mobile but realised his phone was switched off Jha then contacted Shethrsquos son Akash 31 who also failed to get in touch with his father Both Ajit and Akash then headed to Worli police station and reported Sheth missing at 3 pm The car from which the suicide note was recovered Police first explored Shethrsquos car where they found a suicide note It read ldquoEnding my life as failed to fulfil my commitments for which I am solely and alone responsiblerdquo It was then that the sleuths realised Sheth had probably taken his own life Deputy police commissioner Dhananjay Kulkarni said ldquoLalit Sheth killed himself by jumping off the sea link and his body was found at Worli village The body has been sent to Sion hospital for postmortem Also a suicide note has been found from his carrdquo The suicide note where he said he was lsquosolely and alone responsiblersquou00a0 Additional CP Central Region Pravin Salunkhe said ldquoA case of accidental death has been registered We are investigating whether Shethrsquos financial irregularities have led to his deathrdquo Body of evidence Cops traced the deceasedrsquos mobile phone to near Worli The body when recovered only had a shirt and tie on it The rest of the garments had ostensibly been washed off Incidentally no CCTV footage from the sea link is available as the cameras had been shut down because of strong winds Following the incident cops visited Shethrsquos house at Gandhi building to make inquiries and they questioned his wife Rekha But when she came to know about her husbandrsquos death Rekha went into shock and fell unconscious So policemen failed to elicit any information out of her u00a0 A life less ordinary Speaking to MiD DAY one of Lalit Shethrsquos closest friends who did not wish to be named said ldquoAfter coming from Kolkata along with his brothers Ashok and Raju Lalit started Raj Travels in 1976 Earlier his office was located at Khajurwala Chambers at Masjid Bander and later he had shifted to Panchratna and developed his business on a much larger scale After Panchratna he also opened an office at Opera House In the beginning his Kashmiri tours were very popular because he would rent a few houseboats in Srinagar and hire good chefs from Mumbai who cooked delicious Gujarati food and met the touristsrsquo demands In 1979 he launched his first international tour MumbaiSingaporeBangkokMumbai and later became celebrated in the field lsquoAll Inclusiversquo was his success mantra In the field of travels he developed a whole lot of fresh ideas and today he has 79 offices and about 1000 agents across India He married a Kashmiri girl and they have a son and a daughter But when he floated Raj Airlines his company started making losses Thatrsquos why his financial status deteriorated After that he recovered from those misfortunes Again five years ago when he launched Raj tourist bus service he incurred damages He had bought about 75 buses each at a cost of Rs 90 lakh and he had also started many franchises in the country He tried to offer Indians the same luxury that people in Western countries are used to while travelling But things didnrsquot work in his favour and he kept losing money This could be a reason behind his suiciderdquo Autopsy photographed According to sources at LTMG hospital where the autopsy was carried out the forensic team photographed the entire procedure which is a practice they follow while handling highprofile cases Preliminary examinations revealed that the deceased had sustained a few minor injuries around the knees and had a small swelling on the left side of the head This according to forensic experts could be due to fall from a height The autopsy hinted that death was due to drowning but as a precaution the surgeons have preserved the viscera for chemical analysis to rule out any possibility of poisoning and to conduct histopathology tests to discount any preexisting ailment ldquoWe have given the provisional cause of death stating it to be a case of drowning However the final report would be submitted once we receive the laboratory findingsrdquo said Dr Rajesh Dhere professor and head of forensics department Meanwhile the Dadar police have registered a case under section 174 of the Cr Procedure Code mdashVinod Kumar Menon