Sugar factory president shoots self in alleged suicide

Pradip Nimbalkar, the newly elected president of the Chhatrapati co-operative sugar factory in Indapur, allegedly shot himself on Monday afternoon. Nimbalkar, 45, who is a close associate of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar, later succumbed to injuries in hospital. Even as family members maintained that Nimbalkar was cleaning his licensed pistol when the trigger accidentally got pulled leading to the misfire, Sandeep Patil, superintendent of police, said a suicide note has been recovered .

“Prima facie it appears to be case of suicide. We have recovered the suicide note and investigation is on.” The incident took place at his residence located in Sansar, Indapur at 2.30 pm. A profusely bleeding Nimbalkar was rushed to Baramati for special medical treatment, but was announced dead while undergoing treatment, police said assistant police inspector (API) Arvind Kate, investigating officer in the case, said, “His family members said that it was a misfire while he was cleaning the pistol while there is another contention that he committed suicide. We will wait for the family to return to Indapur and then record their statement for further investigation.”

Nimbalkar was elected to the coveted post as president of the sugar factory on October 31. There was an ongoing strike by contractual workers of the factory for the past couple of days which ended on Monday due to his successful negotiations. However, a dispute broke out between factory directors over the payment of bonus to the workers due to which he was under stress . He was alone on the first floor of his residence when the family downstairs heard the shot. They rushed upstairs and found him lying in a pool of blood. He is survived by his wife, son, daughter, father and brother.