Suicide note cites financial woes, warns kin about risks associated with SRA projects
Shanti Kamal housing society, where the deceased resided
A 57-year-old developer, Paras Porwal, jumped to his death from the terrace of his 22-storey residential building near Chinchpokli railway station on Thursday morning. According to the police, Porwal had written a suicide note, stating that he had suffered losses after a few of his projects got stalled and that investors were behind him.
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The realtor—whose firm Om Shanti Group has developed many Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) projects in Dadar, Worli, Kalachowki and Chembur—also left a message for his wife and children, cautioning them about the risks associated with SRA projects and advising them to opt for private development projects instead. He also wrote that no one should be held responsible for his actions nor should anyone be questioned in connection with his death.
Paras Porwal
Around 6.05 am, a priest of the temple inside Shanti Kamal housing society, which was built by Porwal, heard a loud thud and found the developer lying in a pool of blood. He then alerted others, including the developer’s shocked family. The police then rushed Porwal to KEM hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
The deceased resided in a duplex that occupies the 21st and 22nd floors and also owned a private terrace. The police later found the suicide note inside his gym on the 22nd floor. The developer is survived by his elderly mother Shanti Devi, wife Manju, son Ronnie and a married daughter Rikki. The Kalachowki police have registered an accidental death report and begun an investigation.
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The deceased’s nephew, Dheeraj Kumar Jain, said, “I don’t think my uncle was under any stress or he was facing any financial difficulties; in business, there are always ups and downs. We all are in shock.” MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar, who was Porwal’s friend, went to KEM hospital on hearing the news. He said, “Porwal was a helpful person and he rose to heights from zero. I had messaged him yesterday and he replied, ‘Bandhu, I will call you tomorrow’.”
Porwal contested the Maharashtra assembly election from the Mazgaon constituency on a Samajwadi Party ticket against Nandgaonkar in 2004. The deceased, who hails from Jalore in Rajasthan, initially stayed in a chawl at Ambewadi in Kalachowki and used to sell imitation jewellery in local trains before turning into a real estate broker and eventually becoming a developer in the mid-1990s. He was executing an SRA project at Jijamata Nagar at Worli at the time of his death.
6.05
Time on Thursday morning when the incident occurred
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