Nitin Desai death: ‘Undeclared boycott of him continued even after his death'

As per his wishes art director Nitin Desairsquos last rites were performed at the helipad at his studio in Karjat on Friday Desai was given a 21gun salute by the Raigad police as per the instructions of CM Eknath Shinde Actor Aamir Khan directors Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Ashutosh Gowarikar and actress Sonali Kulkarni were the only celebrities spotted at the funeralA 21gun salute by the Raigad police to the departed soulSome other artistes from the Marathi film industry attended the funeral However no other associate of his from Bollywood attended it Desai died by suicide at his studio on Wednesday morning His funeral was arranged on Friday as his son and soninlaw were to arrive from the USA Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar paid their respects to Desai at JJ Hospital on Friday morning After that the mortal remains were taken to ND Studio KarjatDesairsquos wife daughter son and soninlawFrom 1 pm the body was kept at the Agra fort set that was used in the movie Jodhaa Akbar for people to pay their last respects Besides the actors mentioned no other Bollywood stars came to pay their respects ldquoDada Nitin Desai gave stars red carpet treatment He never thought twice before fulfilling their wishes be it about food or any other luxuryrdquo said a close associate of Desai on condition of anonymity ldquoDada always remained a close friend to many stars We had expected most of Bollywood to come but the undeclared boycott of him continued even after his deathrdquo he addedLoan co officials booked over Desairsquos suicideThe Raigad police on Friday said they have booked four officials of Edelweiss group for allegedly harassing and mentally torturing art director Nitin Desai leading to his suicide They will now be summoned for questioning cops added The FIR has been filed under IPC Sections 306 abetment of suicide and 34 common intention at Khalapur police station based on the complaint lodged by Nitinrsquos widow Neha DesaiSanjay Leela Bhansali at the funeral PicsSatej ShindeldquoAccording to the written complaint given by Neha Desai both the companies consistently mentally tortured Nitin Desai The torture led to the suicide of the Nitin Desairdquo Superintendent Somnath Gharge of Raigad police said The names Those booked aremdashEdelweiss Finance CEO and Chairman Rashesh Shah Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company ARC officials Keyoor Mehta Smit Shah and R K Bansal and Jitendra Kothari an insolvency professional appointed by the NCLT MumbaiHis fatherinlaw and motherinlaw at the funeralldquosoon the COVID19 pandemic hit the entertainment industry and shoots were stalled Nitin Desai knew this will lead to defaults and pilling up of interest He contacted the borrowers and asked about a onetime settlementrdquo states the FIR Nitin was ready to pay the settlement amount but Edelweiss ARC kept postponing their meetings according to the FIR ldquoNitin begged for settlement but without intimating him Edelweiss ARC went to NCLT and even to Raigad collectoraterdquo it adds In 2019 Nitin sold is Powai office to pay off six months of EMI according to the FIRThe loan Nitinrsquos company NDrsquos Art World Pvt Ltd had mortgaged a total of 43 acres of land on which his ND Studio stands and borrowed R185 crore through two loans from ECL Finance in 2016 and 2018 ECL Finance is a nonbanking finance arm of the Edelweiss GroupAshutosh Gowarikar pays his last respects to DesaiLater on Art Worldrsquos debt was transferred to Edelweiss ARC which had appealed in the National Company Law Tribunal NCLT for insolvency Edelweiss had sent a proposal to the Raigad collector to seize the mortgaged land The proposal has been pending before the collector for the past two months Desai had named the officials in a voice note he had left accusing Edelweiss ARC of trying to usurp his studioAlleged threat It is alleged that on July 29 Jitendra Kothari told Nitinrsquos lawyer and Neha that he is sending his bouncers to ldquoto look afterrdquo ND StudioNitin told his wife that no new assignments are coming to the studio because of all this and hence they have incurred a loss of R100 crore according to the FIR Anurag Kamble and Apoorva Agashe