Mumbai, Sep 8 (PTI) The Bombay High Court on Thursday quashed a case registered against nine persons, including Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Union Territory Administrator Praful Khoda Patel, for allegedly abetting the suicide of former Lok Sabha MP Mohan Delkar last year.
While allowing the dismissal pleas filed by the accused, which included senior government officials, the high court observed it was a fit case to quash the First Information Report (FIR) to “prevent abuse of law”.
A division bench of Justices P B Varale and S D Kulkarni also noted that the contents of the FIR and reference made to the incident fall too short to show any “positive act” committed by the accused persons to abet the suicide of Delkar.
Delkar, 58, a seven-term Member of Parliament from Dadra and Nagar Haveli, was found dead in a room at a hotel in Marine Drive in south Mumbai on February 22, 2021.
Patel and eight others were booked by the Mumbai police in March 2021 on charges of abetting the suicide and criminal intimidation of Delkar on a complaint was lodged by the late MP’s son Abhinav.
As per the complaint, the Parliamentarian had committed suicide allegedly due to harassment by the accused persons, who wanted to take control of the educational institutions run by the then-Independent MP and to dissuade him from contesting elections.
The nine accused had moved the high court last year seeking for the FIR to be quashed, noting they have been implicated in the case.
The court on Thursday, while allowing the petitions, said it found merit in the pleas.
“Considering all aspects, we find merit in the petitions. It is a fit case for the court to quash the case to prevent abuse of law,” the bench noted.
It added that the FIR dated March 9, 2021, filed by Abhinav Delkar (Mohan Delkar’s son) with the Marine Drive police station under IPC sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 506 (criminal intimidation), 389 (putting a person in fear of accusation of offence in order to commit extortion) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) and provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (the late MP was a tribal leader) was quashed.
The court noted the petitioners were justified in submitting that Delkar was in social and political life for a considerably long period of time and had faced many adversities in his life boldly.
“It was only the impression carried out by the deceased that he was ill-treated or humiliated,” the bench said, adding there was no material to prima facie show a single incident where Delkar was harassed or humiliated.
In April last year, the Maharashtra government had made a statement that it would take no coercive action against the petitioners in view of the pandemic situation and the same was continued from time to time.
Apart from Patel, the other accused in the case are – Sandeep Singh, the then-District Collector (Dadra and Nagar Haveli); Sharad Darade, the then-Superintendent of Police; Apurva Sharma, the then-Deputy Collector; Manasvi Jain, Sub-Divisional Officer; Manoj Patel, Police Inspector (Silvassa); Rohit Yadav (DNH administrative department official); political leader Fattesingh Chauhan and Dilip Patel (Talathi or revenue official of Silvassa). PTI SP NP RSY RSY
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