'Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah' writer Abhishek Makwana dies by suicide, family alleges cyber fraud: Report

One of the writers of the popular Hindi series, 'Taarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah', Abhishek Makwana, died by suicide last week, allegedly due to cyber fraud, according to reports.

According to a Mumbai Mirror report, Abhishek was found hanging in his flat in Kandivali, in Mumbai, on November 27. The suicide note had mentioned a financial crisis the writer had been facing for the last few months but did not specify the details.

His brother Jenis, was quoted saying, “I checked my brother’s mails because ever since he passed away, I got multiple phone calls from different numbers demanding to be paid back loans he owed someone. One call was a number registered in Bangladesh, one in Myanmar, and others were from different states of India.”

Jenis added, “From what I understood from the email records, my brother first took a small loan from one of the ‘easy loan’ apps that charge a very high rate of interest. I looked at the transactions between them and my brother closely after that. I noticed that they kept sending small amounts despite my brother not applying for the loans. Their interest rates are as high as 30%.”

The Charkop Police Station in Mumbai had registered an accidental death record after the family's statements were recorded. The police said that investigation was being conducted into the deceased bank transactions, according to the news report.