RAKESH Kunchikorve, an employee at Naval Dockyard, had a close brush with death, after he tried to end his life by consuming Phenyl. Kunchikorve took the drastic step, after he was fed up with the harassment meted out to him by the officials of naval management and leader of Naval Employee Union (NEU).
Kunchikorve took this dire step of attempting suicide on July 20, 2019. He also left a 2 page suicide note, written in Hindi (Copy available with ABI), where he alleged that the management of naval administration as well as union leader of NEU Bapu Kamble were harassing him. Sources said that Kunchikorve had contested Shop Committee Election against Bapu Kamble in February 2017. Kunchikorve lost against Bapu Kamble, but despite the win, Bapu Kamble was stunned that Kunchikorve had dared to contest an election against him. Since then, he started systematically harassing Kunchikorve using his influence with the naval management. Kunchikorve was transferred from Centre 23 to Centre 24. Kunchikorve also wrote a letter to forman Shivaji Gaikwad, fearing for his safety. This led to further harassment for him. Another employee Deepak Koli was also harassed as he favored Kunchikorve in election.
Kunchikorve has also alleged that DGM (HULL) Captain Bakhshi was also consistently and persistently harassing him, leading to his taking this extreme step of attempting suicide.
Bapu Kamble is a union leader of NEU. The union leaders of NEU share excellent rapport and relations with naval officers, especially since the administration helped build an illegal sports academy at Kanjurmarg. The sports academy has been illegally built to benefit ex-cricketer Kiran More. It is known that Kiran More was a classmate of Rear Admiral Sanjeev Kale’s wife and Kale went out of his way to build the illegal sports academy.
VARDIWALE NYAY NAHIN DENGE
Kunchikorve has also mentioned a few more names in his suicide note and detailed how he was mentally tortured and harassed. He claims that he had no other option besides committing suicide. He had written “Vardiwale Nyay Nahin Denge. Matter jab court pahunchega to nyay milega.” His last words are written in English- “I am sorry Chikoo,” and then he consumed phenyl. However, Kunchikorve is out of danger but admitted in Fortis hospital, Mulund.