‘They killed my father’

July 25, 2010

Lawyer Amit Bhandari blames his wife, in-laws and the cops after his father died of a heart attack. Amit claims it was brought on by a police search of his house

Amit Bhandari (32), a lawyer working with the NEO group in Bangalore alleges that his father Pradeep (60) died due to a heart attack caused by anxiety when a team of Delhi police searched his house in Wanowrie on June 17. Bhandari also alleges that the Pune police are refusing to act on his complaint.


Amit’s wife Deeksha had filed a case of harassment and criminal breach of trust against Amit, Pradeep, Amit’s mother Adarsh, his brother Kapil and sister Shobha. The search was carried out on the basis of this complaint.

Amit blames Deeksha, her father Ramesh, mother Meenakshi, Inspector Prem Pal of Delhi police and Assistant sub inspector Krishna from Delhi police for Pradeep’s death and demands they be booked for murder and criminal conspiracy or culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

However, Ramesh Sethi said, “We are not aware of the death of Amit’s father. We had filed a case against the Bhandaris for harassing Deeksha.”

The case

Amit and Deeksha got married on June 27, 2009, at New Delhi which is Deeksha’s hometown. Amit claims they then went to live in Banglore .

Amit alleges, “Two months after the marriage, Deeksha went to Delhi. Afterwards, she refused to talk to me over the phone. A month after that, the Crime Against Women Cell (CAW) of Delhi police summoned us. My parents and I went to Delhi where a counselling session took place. After three such sessions, Deeksha filed a case of harassment.”

He continues, “I preferred anticipatory bail application in courts in Bangalore and Delhi. The court in Delhi gave us interim anticipatory bail till May 12 and asked the police to intimate us a week in advance in case we were to be arrested.

But on June 17 Deeksha barged inside the house with the police team. For 90 minutes, my father pleaded that we were innocent. He showed them the Delhi court’s orders.

The police told him the order did not bear any significance. Then my father fell unconscious and we had to call a doctor. On the doctor’s advice, he was shifted to Ruby Hall Clinic. He died on June 1.”

Amit concludes, “My father suffered the heart attack because he felt humiliated. After my father died, I complained to the Wanowrie police, butthey haven’t filed any formal case yet.”

We only did our duty: delhi cops

ASI Krishna said, “We only did our duty. We intimated the Bhandaris about the date on which we were to search their house in Pune. They allege they were not intimated.”

Amit should approach the court: Pune police

Inspector in-charge of Wanowrie police station Shivajirao Kanase said, “The Delhi police had sought our help to conduct the search and we had sent our men with them. We have no evidence that Amit’s father died due to the search. We asked him to approach the court. If the court asks us to investigate, we will do so.”