Tapkir

Jitendra Joshi

Sucheta Khokale

Priyanka

Rights Association

Sambhaji

Mahesh Shinde

As news of the suicide of Marathi film producer Atulspread in the city on Sunday, with him blaming his wife for the extreme step in his suicide note, members of Men’s Rights Asociation have decided to step in to provide all the necessary legal help to Tapkir’s family. In the same note, Tapkir has mentioned some policemen who had taken a bribe from him when his wife had lodged a complaint against him; this has made Pune police commissioner take the decision of carrying out an inquiry in connection with Tapkir’s allegations.35-year-old Tapkir had produced Hrishitaa Bhatt, Abhijeet Khandkekar andstarrer Marathi movie Dhol Tashe in 2015. Tapkir’s body was found in a room of Hotel President in the Deccan area on Sunday morning. Police suspect he consumed some poisonous substance.According to Deccan police officials, Tapkir had checked in the hotel at around 8 pm on Saturday night after which he had also ordered dinner in his hotel room. On Sunday morning, when Tapkir had not opened the door of his room till10.30 am, the staff knocked on it. When there was no response, the hotel management called up police control room.Inspector (crime)of Deccan police station told Pune Mirror, “We sent a team to the hotel and broke the door of the room. Tapkir was found dead on the bed.”A few hours before committing suicide, Tapkir had posted a long message on his Facebook page where he blamed his wife for killing himself. In the post, Tapkir mentioned that after producing Dhol Tashe, he faced financial losses. When he was broke, his father and sisters supported him but his wifestarted harassing him. He mentioned that his wife threw him out of their house, and for the past six months hehad been stayiing outside. Tapkir also mentioned that Priyanka asked her friends to beat him up.As Tapkir’s post went viral, the members of Pune unit of Men’stook up the issue in their Sunday meeting held atpark. The members decided to extend legal help to the Tapkir family.Advocate, president of Pune unit of the association, told Pune Mirror, “It was a shocking incident where a well known personality like a film producer became a victim of his wife’s torture. His Facebook post very clearly mentions the harassment by his wife. In our meeting, we read out his post and all the members decided to provide his family all the possible legal help.”Shinde said that going by the FB post, Tapkir’s wife should be booked for abetment of suicide.“Along with wife, police should also book those who had beaten him on her instructions. We will be meeting his family members soon,” Shinde added.Apart from blaming his wife and her friends, Tapkir also mentioned that his wife had lodged a complaint against him and his father. That time, police personnel of that particular police station had taken Rs 10,000 from him for not arresting him.The Men’s Rights Association members have also demanded action against the concerned police personnel.“Police should have carried out inquiry into the allegations and taken appropriate action. Instead they decided to extract money from a person who was already facing harassment. We demand that the guilty cops should alsobe booked in this case,” Shinde said.Pune police commissioner Rashmi Shukla assured an inquiry into Tapkir’s allegations. Speaking to Pune Mirror, Shukla said, “We have to verify the allegations. If they are found to be true, we will be taking strict possible action against the concerned police personnel. I will be directing an officer of deputy commissioner of police rank to carry out the inquiry.”