Relief to Rajasthan BJP MLA in woman’s suicide case as High Court quashes order to frame charges against him, others

The incident relates to the death on March 28, 2022, of a pregnant woman who was operated on by Dr Archana Sharma at Anand Hospital in Lalsot. Following the woman’s death in the hospital after she gave birth, her family made allegations of negligence by doctors and kept the body before the hospital gate, demanding compensation and the registration of a case against the doctors. The police registered an FIR the same evening for murder. Next morning, at about 11.30 am, Dr Archana Sharma died by suicide at her residence.

Subsequently, Sharma’s husband filed a complaint, on the basis of which an FIR was lodged at Lalsot police station against some local residents. The FIR did not name MLA Gothwal.

In the chargesheet, police claimed that protesters settled the dispute after the doctor’s family agreed to pay Rs 3 lakh on Gothwal’s insistence. The trial court framed charges under IPC section 306 for abetment of suicide, along with section 149, which holds each member of an unlawful assembly guilty of any offence committed in furtherance of the assembly’s common object. Additionally, charges for criminal extortion were also framed.

The order framing charges was challenged in a criminal revision petition by Gothwal and the other accused.

Gothwal’s lawyer, Hemant Nahta, said the High Court has considered that the charges were framed even when the trial court was aware that further investigation is going on. According to the lawyer, the further investigation report absolved Gothwal and hence, the charge order has been quashed and set aside with the directions to the trial court to pass a fresh order.