Sarpanch’s husband, 7 others booked for abetting suicide

A day after a 70-year-old man, Zora Singh, died by suicide due to the alleged harassment by panchayat members of Akhara village in Jagraon, the Sadar Jagraon police on Tuesday registered a case against eight persons, including the husband of the village sarpanch, on the charges of abetment to suicide and criminal intimidation.

Panchayat members had also levelled allegations against the deceased of hurling casteist remarks against them and a police complaint was also lodged against him. Fearing the registration of a case against him, the victim consumed sulphas tablets and breathed his last at a hospital on Monday.

The suspects were identified as Jasvir Singh, husband of village sarpanch, Sukhwinder Singh, Sonu, Darshan Singh, Pradeep Singh, Bhujia, Sukhdeep Singh Sukha and Savran Singh.

SHO, Sadar Jagraon, SI Surjit Singh, said after the police registered a case against the suspects, they escaped from their homes and the police were continuously conducting raids at their suspected whereabouts.

The SHO said the complainant, Sukhdev Singh, son of deceased Zora Singh, stated in his complaint that the panchayat had started the work of laying interlocking tiles in his street. During this, the panchayat members, including Jasvir, had assured his father Zora Singh that while constructing the road, the level of the street would be kept equal to that of their house. But contrary to their claims, the panchayat filled the lane with mud and laid tiles on the top. The lane became about two feet higher than their house. Dirty water from sewerage and rainwater started entering their house due to the elevation of the lane.

According to Sukhdev, his father asked the panchayat members several times to solve the problem but the panchayat did not listen to him. Instead, it filed a false complaint against his father with the BDPO. On July 27, the panchayat called his father and also told him to stay away from the panchayat matter else a case would be registered against him. The suspects humiliated his father so much.

Meanwhile, his father could not tolerate the humiliation done by the panchayat and consumed sulphas. When he got information about it, he took his father to Kalyani Hospital on the Jagraon-Raikot road. His father died during treatment there. Before dying, he revealed the names of the eight suspects who were allegedly responsible for his death.