Maharashtra Opposition leader Eknath Khadse’s son Nikhil committed suicide by shooting himself on Wednesday.
The incident happened at Khadse’s residence at Muktai Nagar in Jalgaon on Wednesday afternoon. Family members heard a gun shot and found Nikhil lying in a pool of blood with a head injury.
He was rushed to the hospital in Jalgaon city which is about 50 km from Muktai Nagar.
However, even though he was admitted to the hospital and the doctors tried to treat him he eventually succumbed to his injuries.
Thirty seven years old Nikhil, like his father was also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
He was elected to the Zilla Parishad (local self-government) from Muktai Nagar. In 2010 his attempt to get elected to the Legislative Council did not yield result as he was defeated and his father had blamed the Shiv Sena for the defeat. The fact that Nikhil’s son owned a revolver was known when he had misplaced his firearm in Mall near Mumbai two years ago.
On 7 May 2011, Nihkil while shopping with his friends in Mall at Thane had left his revolver in the changing room. The revolver was recovered after a three hour search.
As of now, there is no clue as to what would have triggered Nikhil to commit suicide.
Sources in the BJP indicated that illness could be one of the reasons for the drastic step. Nikhil was suffering from severe joint pains including his back. Jalgaon BJP leaders said that joint pains would be so severe that Nikhil would be bed ridden for days together. The funeral is expected tomorrow at 10am with senior BJP and top politicians from Maharashtra expected to attend to it. Besides his parents, sister, Nikhil is survived by wife and two children.