Shrikant Khandalkar was a lawyer known for filing

public interest litigation in India The chief instrument through which judicial activism has flourished in India is public interest litigation (PIL) or social action litigation (SAL). ''Public interest litigation'' (PIL) refers to litigation undertaken to secure public interest and de ...

. He died Sunday 29 November 2015. On Sunday 29 November 2015 Khandalkar was found dead. Police determined that the death was a suicide. His body was injured after falling 8 stories from a window. He held a

suicide note A suicide note or death note is a message left behind by a person who dies or intends to die by suicide. A study examining Japanese suicide notes estimated that 25–30% of suicides are accompanied by a note. However, incidence rates may depen ...

which explained that he had serious health problems. The lack of proper lighting in the courthouse was named as an explanation for why no one noticed the danger. ''

The Hitavada ''The Hitavada'' is an English daily newspaper circulating mainly in Central parts of India. Founded in 1911 by freedom fighter Gopal Krishna Gokhale in Nagpur, the newspaper was taken over by Purohit and Company, owned by Banwarilal Purohit, t ...

'' reported that he was alive for some hours before he was able to go to the hospital, where he died. Khandalkar had been in conflict with various organizations over lawsuits, and this may have contributed to his poor condition. ''Nagpur Today'' described the death as mysterious. In 2019 a group of lawyers requested a probe into the deaths of Khandalkar, Brijgopal Harkishan Loya, and retired judge Prakash Thombre. These three were legal colleagues and all died in strange ways.

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

politician

Kapil Sibal Kapil Sibal (born 8 August 1948) is an Indian lawyer and politician. Sibal has represented several high-profile cases in the Supreme Court of India and is widely regarded as one of the famous lawyers of India. He is a Member of Parliament, in Ra ...

stated his opinion that Khandalkar was murdered. Khandalkar helped to expose the Maharashtra Irrigation Scam. In 2011 Khandalkar represented university faculty who called for review of the appointment of university chancellors. In 2013 Khandalkar praised the

Government of Maharashtra The Government of Maharashtra is the state governing authority for the states of india, state of Maharashtra, India. It is a democratically elected State governments of India, government with 288 Member of the Legislative Assembly (India), MLAs ...

for committing to establish the

Maharashtra National Law University, Nagpur Maharashtra National Law University Nagpur (MNLU) (also known as National Law University, Nagpur or NLU Nagpur) is a National Law University and a public law school established by the government through the Maharashtra National Law University ...

. Previously Khandalkar had filed

public interest litigation The chief instrument through which judicial activism has flourished in India is public interest litigation (PIL) or social action litigation (SAL). ''Public interest litigation'' (PIL) refers to litigation undertaken to secure public interest and de ...

advocating for this. Also in 2013 in Nagpur, Khandalkar filed for investigation about the sale of public land to a private real estate development company.

References

{{reflist Indian lawyers 2015 deaths Indian anti-corruption activists Death conspiracy theories Conspiracy theories in India