Navi Mumbai builder passes away, was battling FIR for failure to clear debt

As Navi Mumbai builder Raj Kandhari passed away a day after he shot himself, the police confirmed that he was stressed about his debts and his business had been suffering for a while. One of his contractors had even filed a police case against him last year, and wrote to the CM to complain that Kandhari had not paid him for his work.

Raj Kandhari had sustained heavy brain damage from the gunshot, and was declared dead last evening

The 44-year-old shot himself in the head in his bedroom, while his mother, sister and brother-in-law were in the living room. The bullet injury had led to extensive brain damage, and Kandhari passed away last evening.
"The victim was declared dead at 8.20 pm, and his body was handed over to the civic hospital in Vashi, where the post-mortem will be conducted," said PK Sashanker, administrator of MGM Hospital. Kandhari's mother Nirmala is currently in a state of shock and is also admitted in hospital.

One of the pages from Kandhari's diary, where he had written about the ups and downs in life

Since the family is in trauma, the cops are yet to take their statement, but the Sanpada police have started taking statements of the family driver, relatives, friends, maids and security guards who were around during the time of the incident.

Kandhari had a US-made revolver that was licenced in 2008. The 0.32mm revolver had five cartridges, out of which Kandhari fired one round. The bullet entered from the right side of his head, exited on the left side and hit the wall and the cupboard. Based on these findings, cops suspect it was a suicide attempt.

However, they are yet to establish the exact reason behind it. "At present, we have not registered any case, as we suspect it was a suicide attempt. If anyone from the family comes forward with a complaint, we will verify the facts and register a case accordingly," said DCP (Zone I) Shahaji Umap.

Money woes
During investigations, cops found that the builder was depressed due to financial problems plaguing his business for more than six months, and are gathering more information on this. "We questioned one of Kandhari's friends in the society - Denzil Maskarnis - who told us that Kandhari was in debt following problems in his business. Our officers are investigating where he borrowed money from and where he invested it, as well as all his ongoing projects," said the DCP, adding that relatives said his financial problems started at least than six months ago.

"We are checking the victim's last calls and messages for clues. His bank account will also be checked by us. We will also check whether he had received any threatening calls in the past, as this is very common among developers," said a senior officer from Sanpada police station.