Producer’s wife, three relatives held over his suicide

Pune: The Pune police on Tuesday arrested the wife, two brothers-in-law and distant relative of Atul Tapkir, a Marathi film producer who committed suicide on Saturday in Pune after posting a suicide message on a social networking site blaming his wife for harassment.

The police arrested Priyanka Tapkir, a housewife; her brothers Kalyan Gavane, and Balu Gavane; and cousin Bapu Thigale. Tapkir had blamed all four for mental harassment in his suicide note.

A.M. Kharat, police sub-inspector, Deccan police, said, “Priyanka came to the police station on her own while we arrested the Gavane brothers at their house in Kondhwa. Bapu Thigale was arrested at his house in Khed. We produced them in court today and we have received one-day custody of them till May 17. As of now, we have not received any information from four of them.”

On Monday, Tapkir’s father lodged a first information repor  against Priyanka and her relatives under sections 306 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for abetment of suicide and 34 for crime committed with common intention.

Tapkir, who won critical acclaim for his movie Dhol Tashe — which was released two years ago, committed suicide in President Hotel at Karvenagar.

Before that, he posted suicide note on Facebook in which he blamed Priyanka for harassing him and his family. According to suicide note, financial losses incurred due to filmmaking and harassment by his wife were reasons why he had decided to commit suicide.According to the note, Priyanka had thrown him out of their house six months ago and was not allowing him to meet his two children while her brothers used to harass him on the road. A few days back, he called Priyanka in inebriated state and abused her. Priyanka then filed a police complaint against him and he had to allegedly give Rs 10,000 to police not to arrest him.