A 40-year-old bike-taxi driver in Bhopal has died after allegedly being cheated of about Rs 5.5 lakh by a man who promised to arrange a government Mudra loan for him. Narendra Singh Rajput, who worked with the Rapido bike-taxi service, consumed a poisonous substance outside the Ashoka Garden police station on Wednesday and died during treatment at Hamidia Hospital on Thursday, according to reports by the Free Press Journal and NewsDarpan.

Source: Free Press Journal via MyPressToday

Before his death, Rajput recorded a video of about 13 minutes in which he accused a man named Pulak Saxena of cheating him. According to Rajput's allegations in the video, Saxena, whom he said he had known for about six years, presented himself as a government officer and promised to arrange a Mudra loan of Rs 12.5 lakh. Rajput alleged that Rs 10,500 was first taken from him in the name of file and loan-processing charges, followed by about Rs 25,000 through online payments, then Rs 2.85 lakh after he was told the loan had been approved, and finally about Rs 2 lakh more in the name of further process expenses — about Rs 5.5 lakh in total. The loan never arrived. These are Rajput's allegations, recorded before his death, and they have not been proved in court.

Source: NewsDarpan

Rajput's wife Pratiksha has alleged that her husband went to the Ashoka Garden police station several times with complaints against Saxena but that his grievances were not heard. She alleged that on Wednesday afternoon he was told to return in the evening, that his complaint was again not taken up, and that he then consumed the poisonous substance outside the station in distress. She has also alleged that the family was not informed by the police and learned what had happened only when they reached him by phone late at night. The Free Press Journal's report similarly carried the family's claim that he acted after alleged police inaction on his complaints.

Source: NewsDarpan

Case registered, accused in custody, police suspect other victims

Ashoka Garden station house officer Anurag Lal said a case has been registered against Pulak Saxena under sections related to cheating and abetment to suicide, and that the accused has been taken into custody and is being questioned. Lal said Rajput had consumed poison outside the police station and was taken to hospital as soon as police received information. Police said the initial investigation indicated Rajput was under debt, that no suicide note was found, and that a marg (inquest) was registered on the family's information before further action was taken on the basis of Rajput's video, family statements and other evidence.

Source: NewsDarpan

Police also suspect Rajput may not have been the only person targeted. According to the police account reported by NewsDarpan, the accused told investigators he was unemployed, allegedly changed his house every three months, and several people used to visit him demanding their money back. Officers are now collecting information to identify other possible victims of the alleged loan-arrangement fraud, and say the investigation will also examine Rajput's complaints and the circumstances at the police station.

Source: NewsDarpan

Rajput earned his living riding for the bike-taxi service and, according to his family, had borrowed money from several people in the hope that the promised loan would come through, giving those borrowed funds to the accused. When the loan did not arrive and he asked for his money back, he was allegedly told the person arranging the loan had run away with it, while the people he had borrowed from kept pressing him for repayment — leaving him, his family says, under about Rs 5 lakh of debt. What happens next rests on the police investigation: the questioning of the accused, the search for other complainants, and the examination of whether Rajput's earlier complaints were acted on.