Mumbai: In a fresh twist in the death of TikTok star Pooja Chavan, her father Lahu Chavan Monday claimed that she was very disturbed due to some family debts which could have led her to take resort to the extreme step.
“We have lost our daughter. She is not going to return. We have no complaints or doubts against anybody regarding her death. Please stop defaming us in society,” Chavan pleaded in a statement.
He also made it clear that the voice in the audio clips which have gone viral on social media does not belong to his daughter.
“We are not blaming anybody. Kindly leave us alone and don’t give us more pain by such allegations against her,” he said. Chavan said that Pooja has five other sisters but she was the strongest in the family and her sudden death has shocked and shattered them all.
“We had taken a loan to rebuild our house and set up our poultry farm business. But things were very bad past couple of years, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and then the bird flu,” he added.
Breaking down, he said he had assured his daughter not to take stress over the loans and promised to clear them somehow, but she took the extreme step after going to Pune nearly a fortnight ago.
Chavan’s statement came a couple of days after the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party mounted an all-out attack on the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, alleging that Forest Minister Sanjay Rathod was reportedly linked to Pooja’s death on February 8.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray made it clear Saturday that there would be a thorough probe into her death and anybody found involved will not be spared.
Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Monday rubbished BJP allegations, saying that there is “no question of any pressures on the police”, and reiterating that there would be a proper probe into the matter.
“There is no basis on the allegations leveled by the Opposition (BJP). The probe will be as per law… even the CM has said the same thing,” Deshmukh said.
Hailing from Parli town in Beed, Pooja Chavan, 22, had gone to Pune for an English speaking course. She lived in Heaven Park society along with two persons, said to be a brother and his friend. On February 8, she allegedly jumped off the building to end her life.
A couple of days after her death, some purported audio clips of hers went viral on social media which the opposition took up and pointed accusing fingers at the Shiv Sena Minister Rathod, demanding an investigation.
However, Shiv Sena Ministers Eknath Shinde, Subhash Desai, farmers’ leader Kishore Tiwari and others flayed the manner in which the Opposition leaders like Devendra Fadnavis, Pravin Darekar, Atul Bhatkalkar, Kirit Somaiya, Ram Kadam and others were politicising the issue.
“There is no complaint from her family, the police probe is not completed, we don’t know the outcome of the autopsy report, the circumstances leading to her tragic death. Then, it is not proper for the Opposition to link a Minister’s name in this manner,” Tiwari said on Sunday.
In a veiled warning, Tiwari said that if the BJP is waving audio clips, “then, we also have your video-clips, but we don’t indulge in such low-level politics”.
Among other things, Fadnavis wrote to the Director General of Police submitting the purported audio-clips of the alleged conversations between Pooja and the Minister.
