AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal convicted in doctor’s suicide case

The court held the accused guilty despite the fact that most witnesses, including the son and wife of the deceased, had turned hostile — a development which the court attributed to “fear” of the accused.

On April 18, 2020, Dr Rajender Singh (52) had died by suicide at his residence. Police said a purported suicide note was recovered from the spot, in which, 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, said police.

In November 2021, the court of Additional Sessions Judge Geetanjali Goel had framed charges against Jarwal in the case. Harish was discharged for the offence under IPC sections 306 and 386, but is liable to be charged prima facie for the offence under Section 506.

Relying on the oral statements of Arvind, the nephew of the deceased — the only witness who did not turn hostile — the court observed that Jarwal and his aide Nagar were “extorting money” from the deceased, due to which, he was under “tremendous mental pressure, which eventually led to his suicide”. Arvind deposed that his uncle committed suicide due to harassment and extortion by Jarwal and Kapil.

According to the prosecution, the deceased was threatened to pay Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 per month for small and big tankers, respectively, to Jarwal and his aides in lieu of letting his tankers ply with the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). It was also alleged that during the 2020 Delhi Legislative Assembly elections, the costs were increased to Rs 51,000 and Rs 71,000, respectively.

Further, the accused allegedly threatened the deceased that his tankers would be discontinued and his dues would not be cleared by the DJB if he did not pay the amount.

While convicting the accused, it was held by the court that Dr Rajendra wrote around 40 statements at different times implicating both the accused and holding them responsible for pushing him to take his own life by threatening him and extorting money from him.

“It is crystal clear from a joint reading of these reasons left by the deceased in the form of his dying declarations that it was A1 Prakash Jarwal and A2 Kapil Nagar, who were behind commission of suicide by him, and his suicide was not generated by or committed because of any other reasons,” held Special Judge Nagpal in the order dated February 28.

The accused, who were represented by Advocates SP Kaushal and Ravi Drall, argued that since most of the writings left by deceased were not dated, it could not be presumed that they were written immediately prior to his suicide or even in near proximity to the same – this, they said, meant that the writings could not be made a basis for holding the accused guilty of abetment to suicide.

“…after the writing containing date 04.03.2020, the deceased wrote around 20 other writings in continuity and thus,even if no date was written or appended by him below the subsequent writings, the same were apparently written after 04.03.2020 and hence, considerably reduce the gap between such writings or the last writing left and the date of commission of suicide by him i.e. 18.04.2020,” held the court, rejecting the arguments of the defence counsel.

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