MP couple deaths: Cong support for children who gifted piggy bank to Rahul

Several Congress leaders on Monday assured support to the children of a couple who reportedly died by suicide after accusing the ED (Enforcement Directorate) and some BJP members of harassment in Madhya Pradesh's Sehore district.

Congress general secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh Jitendra Singh, media chairman Pawan Khera, state Congress president Jitu Patwari, leader of Opposition Umang Singhar and All India Mahila Congress president Alka Lamba met the children in Ashta town and extended full support, a Congress official said.

The couple’s children had gifted their piggy bank to Rahul Gandhi during his foot march Bharat Jodo Yatra, and were fondly called the 'gullak (piggy bank) team', Congress leaders said. They assured the children and their relatives that the party would take care of their education and other needs, the leaders also said.

Businessman Manoj Parmar and his wife Neha were found hanging at their home in Ashta on the morning of 14 December. In a purported suicide note that surfaced on social media, Parmar alleged that he was being harassed by the ED and BJP leaders. Parmar also urged Gandhi and other Congress leaders to take care of his school-going children.

State minister Prahlad Singh Patel had rubbished allegations that the ED and BJP leaders harassed the couple.

On Saturday, Gandhi spoke to the Parmars' children over the phone of Congress leader Jitu Patwari. The couple's elder son told Gandhi that his father chose to die by suicide rather than succumb to the ED's pressure to get them (the children) to join the BJP. During the conversation with Gandhi, the couple's daughter expressed the hope that he would visit their home in Ashta town.

According to the ED, its Bhopal zonal official had carried out searches on 5 December at four premises in Sehore and Indore districts in connection with the matter of Parmar and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The search covered the residential premises of the key persons who were the beneficiaries of the proceeds of crime or actively aided or abetted such persons in a bank fraud case, the ED had said in a statement, claiming to have recovered incriminating documents.

As per the ED’s statement, the agency launched an investigation based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Parmar and a senior branch manager of Punjab National Bank.