Wife, daughter of top officer arrested by CBI for graft commit suicide

New Delhi: The wife and daughter of Director General Corporate Affairs B K Bansal, who was arrested by the CBI two days ago for alleged bribery, committed suicide on Tuesday at their apartment in east Delhi's Madhu Vihar, police said.

Bansal's wife Satyabala (58) and daughter Neha (28) allegedly hanged themselves from ceiling fans in two separate rooms at their residence in Nilkanth Apartments, leaving separate suicide notes, saying the "CBI raid" caused "great humiliation" and they did not want to live after that. They, however, held nobody responsible for their death.

"Two separate suicide notes were recovered. They said that the CBI raid caused them (the family) great humiliation in the society and they did not want to live any more. Nobody is responsible for our death," DCP (East) Rishipal Singh said.

Bansal, an additional secretary-rank officer in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, was arrested by CBI on July 16 for allegedly accepting bribe from a prominent pharmaceutical company.

CBI had carried out searches at eight locations in connection with the case during which the agency had claimed to have made cash recoveries.

CBI spokesperson Devpreet Singh said, "We are deeply shocked and saddened by the incident. It may be mentioned here that both the deceased were neither accused nor questioned or summoned in the ongoing investigation. The matter is being looked into by the local police."

The incident came to light after the Bansal's domestic help arrived around noon but no one opened the door for a long time. She managed to force open the door and found the bodies hanging from stoles, a police official said.

Bansal's son was not present at home at the time of the incident. Neighbours told police that they had not seen him at least for the past four days.

The domestic help raised an alarm, following which the security guard of the building reached their flat and called up the police control room.