Was Mr India Manoj Patil’s alleged suicide attempt a publicity stunt gone wrong?

MUMBAI: According to news reports, ex-Mr India winner Manoj Patil attempted suicide by consuming a huge dose of sleeping pills at his residence at Oshiwara in suburban Mumbai in the early hours of Thursday.

His family rushed him to a hospital where his condition was stated to be ‘critical’ at the time of admission to the hospital. According to the latest update on Thursday late evening, Patil was said to be completely out of danger and could be discharged the next day.

Patil, a resident of Saileela building in Oshiwara, consumed sleeping pills between 12.30 and 1 am Thursday morning.

Fortunately, his family members rushed him to a hospital and he was put on critical care, police said.

Patil aged 29, is an athlete and a model. A few days earlier, he had submitted a complaint letter to the Oshiwara police, demanding action against Bollywood actor Sahil Khan for allegedly defaming him on social media and creating problems in his professional life.

According to another version of the sequence of events, Patil wanted an FIR to be lodged against Khan. In his letter, he also stated that Sahil Khan defamed his nutrition biz on Instagram, but that was because it was not up to the mark, a source said. The cops at the Oshiwara police station were not convinced with Patil’s statements and they felt the complaint was due to professional rivalry and competition. They wanted to investigate the case further before registering an FIR.

Thinking that the cops may not register a complaint, Patil allegedly planned the suicide stunt and prepared the suicide note, the source told this reporter. The plan was to consume a few OTC, easily available sleeping pills and get admitted in a government hospital to bring pressure on the cops to register an FIR.

However, the plan flopped and the actor and bodybuilder actually fell ill after consuming the pills. If an FIR was registered, his competitors would be automatically disqualified as nobody would want to select candidates embroiled in a police case, the source said.

Patil who was crowned Mr India, had started preparations for Mr Olympia.

Sahil Khan also wanted to take part in the tournament and Manoj alleged that Sahil kept harassing him, to keep away from the tournament and not to participate in Mr Olympia. This is the version put out by Patil, but Khan has a different story to tell.

As per the latest update from the hospital, Manoj is out of danger and maybe discharged today or tomorrow.

An official from the Oshiwara police station said no FIR was registered so far and the police are investigating the allegations.

”Our official visited the Cooper Hospital where Patil is admitted. We will record his statement when he is discharged,” Oshiwara police said.