After stir, BJP MLA booked in Meerut lawyer suicide case

After learning about the suicide, dozens of lawyers had staged a sit-in outside the Ganganagar police station and blocked the Meerut-Pauri highway for more than an hour on Saturday evening. They had demanded that Khatik and others be booked in the case.

In a police complaint, Omkar’s son Luv claimed that his in-laws filed a case against him under the Dowry Prohibition Act at the Khatauli police station a few months ago. Khatik and others put pressure on Omkar to pay Rs 14 lakh to Luv’s in-laws to settle the dowry case, said the complaint.

“We have registered an FIR on the basis of a complaint in which his (Omkar’s) son (Luv) has levelled serious charges of abetment to suicide naming nearly 15 people (including the BJP legislator)… Khatik has claimed that he was only trying to mediate between the two groups. We have not yet got any evidence suggesting that the legislator has created any sort of mental pressure or forced the lawyer to give money for mediation,” said Meerut SSP Ajay Sahni.

Luv, the elder son of Omkar, said villagers would hold a mahapanchyat in a day or two “to ensure justice to my father”.

Meanwhile, lawyers on Sunday threatened to intensify the protest if the MLA and others were not arrested. “The police are trying every trick to withdraw the name of the MLA from the FIR, but we will force them to take action against him,” said Mahaveer Tyagi the president of the Meerut Bar Association.

Khatik said, “The case against me is politically motivated and baseless because opposition leaders are trying to denigrate the image of the BJP and our CM.”