Crime branch to probe AAP volunteer suicide
BLAME GAME Opposition demands CM’s resignation, AAP orders probe by district magistrate, says BJP plays politics over ‘dead bodies’
NEW DELHI: A day after an Aam Aadmi Party volunteer, who was allegedly molested by a party colleague earlier this year, committed suicide by consuming poison at her house in outer Delhi’s Narela village, police registered a case of abetment to suicide against the party member. The case will now be probed by an SIT led by the crime branch.
According to the police, the woman named three people — Ramesh Bhardwaj, Amit Kumar and Rajni Kanth — in a WhatsApp video, accusing them of torturing her to withdraw the case of sexual harassment against Bhardwaj, she had filed on June 2.
In the video, which was shot by the victim, Soni, herself and is with the police, the woman claimed that she was committing suicide as she was denied justice. After shooting the video, she reportedly consumed a glass of cold drink that she mixed with sulfas tablets.
The victim’s husband alleged that Bhardwaj forced her to be in a sexual relationship with him in case she wanted to secure a position in the party. When she opposed his advances, he forced himself on her.
“We approached the police only after we could not take it anymore. He used to send her messages, call her at odd hours and follow her to workplace... He was arrested but was given bail in an hour. After that he started harassing my wife to withdraw the case. He hired goons to stalk and threaten my wife. They used to enter our house and threaten my two daughters,” the husband said.
“My wife got so depressed that she stopped going to the parlour and confined herself to the house,” he said.
In her statement to the police filed on June 2, the woman had said that Bhardwaj offered her a lift in his car after a party meeting and on the way asked her to “compromise” if she wanted to have a career in politics
A case under sections of outraging the modesty of a woman using words or gestures was registered at the Narela police station. Bhardwaj was arrested but released on bail.
Bhardwaj, had also registered a counter complaint against her alleging that she demanded `15 lakh and a flat from him, after which she had registered a false complaint against him. A cross FIR was registered in the matter. “In the complaint, the woman said that she approached MLA Sharad Chauhan but even he offered to introduce her to senior party leaders as an activist if she agreed to compromise,” a senior police officer said.
The victim’s daughter, a class 7 student, said, “Men used to barge inside our house and threaten my mother to withdraw the case...”