Ex-MLA, among four booked for abetment to suicide

PATIALA: After the suicide of Sandeep Kumar, 32, of Patran town, the Patran police have booked a former Congress MLA Mangat Rai Bansal and five others for abetment to suicide and criminal conspiracy.
The family of the deceased has alleged interference of the ex-MLA under whose influence the police failed to register any case.
The victim, Sandeep, was married for 10 years to Malina of Bathinda.The victim on September 13 raised objection against the owner of a private school in Patran where his wife used to work as a teacher. Sandeep objected after he suspected illicit relations of his wife with the school owner Rakesh Kumar.
The police said that the school owner along with others thrashed and assaulted the victim on the same day, while his wife left to her maternal house in Bathinda.
The victim next day went to his in-laws in Bathinda where victim’s brother-in-law Mohit Kumar and his friends Kuldip Kumar also assaulted him. Following this, Sandeep remained admitted in a civil hospital in Sangrur from September 18 to 24.
The victim then alleged that police did not register a complaint under the influence of Mangat Rai Bansal, a former legislator. The next day, on September 25, Sandeep committed suicide.
Besides Bansal, the police have booked the victim’s wife Malina, her brother Mohit Kumar, Kuldip Kumar, the school owner Rakesh Kumar, and Rakesh’s wife Veena Rani who is also the school principal.
“We have registered a case against five accused, including Mangat Rai Bansal for abetment to suicide on the complaint of victim's mother Kanta Rani. No arrests have been made yet. The victim’s family alleged that Sandeep was assaulted by his in-laws. The former MLA, too, played a key role in not getting registered his complaint anywhere,” said station house officer of Patran police station Amanpal Singh Virk.