2 weeks Ago By Vineet Upadhyay
Delhi HC NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Friday adjourned the hearing of arguments on the sentence to Aam Admi Party (AAP) MLA Prakash Jarwal and two others in an abetment of suicide case in connection with the death of a south Delhi-based doctor in 2020. The court of Special Judge Kaveri Baweja, noting that one of the convicts in the case, Harish Jarwal , has moved Delhi High Court for quashing of conviction by the trial court, adjourned the matter till September 5. In February this year, a Delhi court had convicted Jarwal and two others in the case.
On April 18, 2020, Dr Rajender Singh (52) died by suicide at his residence. The police said a suicide note was recovered from the spot wherein he allegedly blamed Jarwal and his aide for harassing him and his family over his water supply business. In the note, he held them responsible for his death and accused Jarwal of extortion .
The court convicted Jarwal, MLA from Deoli, and another accused, Kapil Nagar , under sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 34 (common intention), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 511 (attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The court also convicted the third accused, Harish Kumar Jarwal, under part one of section 506 of the IPC. Jarwal and Nagar face a maximum punishment of 10 years’ imprisonment, while Harish faces a prison term of a maximum of two years.
The court will hear the arguments on the quantum of sentence on March 16. The court stated that even in the absence of any corroborative or independent evidence showing proof of payments of different amounts of extortion money made by the deceased or other tanker owners, as stated in the dying declarations of the deceased, the prosecution can be said to have successfully proved the charge for commission of offence under Sections 386, 511, and 120B IPC against the MLA and Nagar. On February 28, the court of Special Judge MK Nagpal stated that the oral and documentary evidence led on record by the prosecution is sufficient to prove the charge for commission of offence of abetment of suicide under Section 306 of the IPC "beyond reasonable doubts" as the said evidence is "corroborative and consistent in nature and does not suffer from any material contradictions or inconsistencies.
" "This is despite the fact that most of the public or other witnesses examined by the prosecution, including the wife and son of the deceased and even the official witnesses, had turned hostile, which apparently appears to this court was due to the fear of the accused persons and their other associates," the court said. Background: Hemant Singh, son of the deceased, alleged in the complaint that Jarwal and Nagar constantly harassed him for money. The police recovered a six-page suicide note that allegedly had the names of the three accused persons – Jarwal, Nagar, and Harish.
On November 11, 2021, a court framed charges against Jarwal and Nagar under sections 306, 120-B, 386, 384, 506, and 34 of the IPC. The court had discharged Harish for offences under sections 306 and 386 but framed charges against him under section 506..
