Cremate us together, Ghaziabad bizman scribbled on wall before committing mass suicide

Ghaziabad: When the police got into the flat of businessman Gulshan Vasudeva, they found bodies of his son and daughter and a suicide note scrawled on the wall in which he wished that all the five members of his family be cremated together, an official said on Wednesday.

Vasudeva (45), who along with his wife Parveen and manager Sanjana jumped to death from their eighth-floor apartment in Indirapuram early on Tuesday, had also stuck currency notes amounting to Rs 10,000 on the wall to cover his funeral expenses.

He had also pasted bounced cheques on the wall given to him by his brother-in-law Rakesh Verma, whom he blamed for putting him and his family under financial distress and compelling him to commit suicide.

“The cheques had bounced and the money Vasudeva had invested in the property at Verma’s behest was not returned, leaving him bankrupt and the family in depression,” Senior Superintendent of Police, Ghaziabad, Sudhir Kumar Singh said.

Referring to Vasudeva’s wish of cremating all five together, Singh said, “It is up to the family members and the relatives of the deceased to decide how to cremate them but the currency notes which were pasted on the wall would be handed over to them as per his last wish.”

After killing his son Hrithik (14) and daughter Hrithika (18), Vasudeva had also killed the family’s pet rabbit, apparently thinking who would feed it after their death.

Vasudeva had then made a video call to one of his uncles, Ramesh Arora, on WhatsApp and showed him the scene at his house around 3.30 am on Tuesday, minutes before ending his own life.

“Arora, who lives in Delhi’s Jhilmil, was alarmed by the situation and assured that he will help Vasudeva financially and urged him not to take any step further. But after four and a half minute of the video call, during which he told Arora how depressed he was, Vasudeva decided to end his own life too,” Singh said.

The officer said on a previous occasion, Vasudeva, who had started having mental health issues, had told Arora about his depression.

“He had started winding up his work. Around a month ago, he had asked his domestic help not to come to work anymore after paying her salary.

“He had distributed some thermal wear and clothes to the guards of the society to show everything was well with him but deep within he was planning the extreme step,” he said.

The Ghaziabad police on Wednesday arrested Vasudeva’s brother-in-law Rakesh Verma and charged him with abetment of suicide.