Nitin Desai suicide case: Art director cremated with police honours; Edelweiss willing to co-operate after wife filed FIR

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Nitin Desai, known to have created epic sets for acclaimed Bollywood films and TV shows such as 'Lagaan', 'Devdas', 'Jodhaa Akbar' and 'Kaun Banega Crorepati', was cremated with police honours on Friday evening at ND Film Studio in Karjat. ETimes reported that the cremation arrangements included a police gun salute in the presence of Raigad Superintendent of Police, Somnath Gharge. The last rites were attended by prominent politicians like Vinod Tawde and Kirit Somaiya, along with several film personalities like Aamir Khan, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and more.

According to reports, Desai left behind several audio files that were said to be suicide messages, in which he named four people and one firm. The 58-year-old died by suicide due to financial stains. Desai's company had defaulted on a Rs 252 crore loan repayment to creditors and the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal had initiated insolvency proceedings against it last week.

Based on the complaint filed by Desai's wife Neha, Raigad police officials registered a case against Edelweiss Group chairman Rashesh Shah and the other four accused. Mrs Desai told the police officials that her husband died by suicide due to mental pressure from the officials of ECL Finance Company and Edelweiss Group regarding debt recovery. The Khalapur police are probing the matter.

Meanwhile, Edelweiss ARC issued a statement on Friday night, denying that the officials were pressurising him to repay loans. «Neither was the interest rate charged excessive nor was there at any time undue pressure being put on the borrower for recovery. We respect the need for the authorities to inquire into such tragic events and will cooperate fully with the enquiry process.