A Delhi court on Thursday acquitted AAP MLA from Narela Sharad Chauhan and five others in a case of abetment to suicide of a party worker.
The court, however, framed charges of abetment to suicide against Chouhan’s close aide Ramesh Bhardwaj, who is facing charges of sexual harassment and molestation of an AAP member who committed suicide after the harassment.
Additional Sessions Judge MK Nagpal acquitted the MLA observing that the woman did not attribute any role to the accused in her pre-death statement and “as Chauhan was a local MLA and Bharadwaj or any other accused was close to him or his name”. These cannot be treated as “critical circumstances against him”.
The court held that there is sufficient prima facie evidence to hold Bhardwaj responsible for the suicide of the woman and framing charges under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the IPC. It held that there is no prima facie evidence or material on record to show the existence of any criminal conspiracy between Bharadwaj and other accused. The court observed that the allegations against Bharadwaj “cannot be taken as harassment of the deceased, but it is found sufficient that prima facie the deceased was pushed to the extreme step of taking his life”.
The court observed that as far as Bharadwaj’s role is concerned, “from his repeated acts and conduct it can be seen that he was left with no option but to take his life”. It said that even after the incident of sexual harassment, he continued to harass her and there is sufficient evidence on record to show that.
Chauhan was represented by Pradeep Rana. Rajinikanth, Mohan Lal Verma and Sanjay were represented by RS Malik and Pradeep Khatri respectively.
The prosecution had alleged that the accused had “simultaneously conspired and harassed the deceased with various acts and deeds and forced him to take his own life”.
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