Congress councillor Sushil Vicky Kalia dies by suicide, leaves note blaming ex-CPS

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 28

Congress councillor Sushil Vicky Kalia died after he consumed a poisonous substance in his factory near Amritsar bypass this afternoon. A resident of Shiv Nagar and councillor from Ward No.64, he was rushed to Sacred Heart Hospital where he passed away during treatment.

Had no contact with him for past 6 yrs

I had no contact with him (Kalia) ever since he left the BJP and moved to the Congress for the past six years. We never came across each other or even conversed with one another telephonically. KD Bhandari, Ex-BJP MLA

Kalia, had an FIR lodged against him at the Police Station Division No. 8 for allegedly misusing government grants sanctioned to welfare societies under the Punjab Nirman scheme. Former Jalandhar North BJP legislator KD Bhandari and others had lodged a complaint against him that he had siphoned off lakhs of rupees in the name of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Welfare Housing Society and Bhai Lalo Welfare Society for setting up community halls and other projects, which never came up.

Vicky Kalia’s son Anshuman too had got embroiled in the case and the family could not secure bail for him even in the Supreme Court. The deceased was a close aide of sitting Congress MLA Bawa Henry. He left behind a suicide note in which he had named ex-CPS Bhandari of mentally harassing him. He has also named Raj Kumar Sharma, his wife and their son for extorting money from him for allegedly providing relief to him against the corruption charges that he was facing. In his suicide note, he has even referred to a phone call with Sharma father-son on August 18 last. He has mentioned that he was being coerced to pay Rs 20 lakh which included Rs 15 lakh to a judge and police officials and Rs 5 lakh to some others.

The complaint had been investigated by ADC (Development) Varinder Pal Bajwa after which Deputy Commissioner Jaspreet Singh had written to the city police in August first week last recommending the lodging of an FIR in the matter against 20 persons. The complaint had been lodged against him on June 7. During inquiry, society members showed that they had been raising a community centre, which actually belonged to Sri Parshuram Nagar Welfare Society. The ADC found that the amount had been withdrawn by a member on several occasions, which he deposited back on June 8, just a day after the complaint had been lodged. It was also found that several members of society were related to one another.

Similarly, it was found that Bhai Lalo Welfare Society had been given government grants for setting up a community centre, but upon inquiry residents said they had been raising the centre pooling in their own money.

SHO Jatinder, who reached the spot, said that the family had handed him over a suicide note. "We will take the statement of the family members and proceed accordingly", he said.

Bhandari said, "It was unfortunate to know about the extreme step taken by the councillor. But he has wrongly mentioned my name in the note. I had no contact with him for the past six years ever since he left the BJP and moved to Congress. We never came across each other or even conversed with one another telephonically. He could have been frustrated due to the case of Rs 50 lakh fraud against him, his son and others."