Escorts Kubota CMD, 7 Others Booked In Abetment To Suicide Case In Uttar Pradesh's Badaun

Company officials allegedly threatened the victim that his dealership license would be cancelled and property auctioned, if sales didn't increase, forcing him to end life.

Badaun: The Dataganj Police in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district registered a case against Nikhil Nanda and several other officials of a tractor company on charges of fraud and abetment to suicide.

On the basis of the court order, company CMD Nikhil Nanda, Uttar Pradesh head of the firm, along with area manager, sales manager, Shahjahanpur dealer and three others were booked by police for allegedly abetting the agency owner Jitendra Singh's suicide.

One Gyanendra, a resident of Papad Hamzapur village under Dataganj police station area, filed in his application before the court that his brother Jitendra ran a tractor agency 'Jai Kisan Traders' in Dataganj with his co-partner Lalla Babu of Mohalla Arela. However, when the co-partner was jailed after a family dispute, Jitendra was handling the agency alone.

According to the petition, the company's area manager Ashish Baliyan, sales manager Sumit Raghav, UP head Dinesh Pant, financier collection officer Pankaj Bhaskar, sales manager Amit Pant, sales head Neeraj Mehra, CEO Nikhil Nanda, and Shahjahanpur dealer Shishant Gupta visited the dealership and put pressure on Jitendra to increase the sales. They allegedly threatened to cancel his dealership license and auction his property if the sales didn't increase.

Unable to deal with the mounting pressure, Jitendra often used to share his concerns with his family and friends and discussed the harassment by the company officials, Gyanendra alleged in the petition.

On 21 November 2024, allegedly, a few of the officials came to the agency once again and harassed him over sales targets. A day later on November 22, Jitendra ended his life, said the brother of the deceased, in his plea.

Gyanendra alleged that police didn't take any action despite filing a complaint and sought the court's intervention. The same was allowed by the court. Following the court's order now, police registered a case against all the accused.

Victim Jitendra’s father, Shiv Singh, stated that he doesn’t know who Nikhil Nanda is and whose son-in-law he is, but believes Jitendra died due to the harassment by company officials. "I don't know who he is. We want justice," Singh said.

Dataganj police station in-charge, Gaurav Vishnoi, confirmed that a case has been registered against eight persons, including Nanda, and an investigation is underway.

Escorts Kubota Limited offers full cooperation

The company, in a statement shared with ETV Bharat, said it came to know of an FIR being filed against certain company officials and that it would offer full cooperation with the probe.

"As of now the Company has not received any official communication from the authorities regarding this matter. Our legal team is gathering all necessary details and if called upon to participate in any inquiry/investigation, we will fully cooperate with the authorities to ensure that the facts are established and the truth prevails," the statement read.

"We understand that the FIR also names senior officials of the company. The naming of senior officials appears to be influenced by factors unrelated to the incident. Such allegations are unfounded and the company is keen to ensure that the proper facts are ascertained," it stated.

We are committed to transparency and would cooperate with the authorities to ensure a thorough and fair inquiry. The company has full faith in the judicial process. We urge all stakeholders and the public to refrain from drawing premature conclusions and to respect the investigative process.

The Company operates with the highest level of corporate governance, integrity, transparency and in full compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements.

(Editor's note:This story has been updated on Feb. 17, 2025 to incorporate the company's statement.)