‘Harassed’ by village secy, sarpanch jumps into canal

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, April 27

Salinder Kumar (45), a sarpanch of Labkari village in Indri segment, committed suicide by jumping into a canal today after allegedly being harassed by the village secretary and another villager.

Salinder left his house this morning after informing his family that he was going to Indri, said Jaswant, the deceased’s brother.

After some time, they got a message that Salinder had jumped into the augmentation canal near Umarpur village. They rushed to the spot and searched the canal. Salinder’s body was recovered around two kilometres from the spot, he added.

Salinder was taken to the hospital, where he was declared dead, said his brother. He said, “My brother was being harassed by two persons: the village secretary and a villager, who forced him to take this extreme step.”

Jaswant said Salinder was a hard worker and had done lots of development work for the village. Salinder left a letter addressed to the Deputy Commissioner, near the jumping site, in which he named the village secretary Pardeep Kumar and villager Om Parkash for harassing him, said Shamsher Singh, Sub-Inspector, Indri police station.

Shamsher stated that in his letter, Salinder had alleged that the secretary had taken his record, but had not submitted it to the BDPO office and had taken money from him. Salinder also blamed Om Parkash for threatening to get him suspended from the post.

A case has been registered against secretary Pardeep and villager Om Parkash under section 306 of the IPC. The body was handed over to the family members after the autopsy. No arrests were made so far, the SI said.