A 45-year old murder convict committed suicide yesterday by jumping off to his death from the fifth floor of Mantralaya, administrative head office of Maharashtra state government based in Mumbai.
Harshal Raote was convicted for killing his sister-in-law in 2003, following which he had been sent to an open jail in Paithan for serving a life sentence. He was currently out on parole of 28 days and yesterday was his last date before reporting back to jail.
According to the police, Raote was in Mantralaya to submit an application seeking relaxation of his life sentence. His application stated that he had served nearly his entire term and his sentence should be reduced. He said injustice had been meted out to him and his entire life had been destroyed by his conviction.
Raote’s suicide soon became a point of contention for opposition parties after leaders of opposition in the state’s assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Dhananjay Munde, visited Mantralaya immediately along with former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar.
Pawar said Mantralaya has become a “suicide point” as the state government has failed to address problems of the public, forcing people to come there and take extreme measures out of frustration.
This is not the first time such incidents have occurred at Mantralaya. Several suicide attempts have been made there in the recent past, including an instance last week involving a man trying to immolate himself alive before being apprehended by the police.