Delhi court convicts Aam Aadmi Party MLA Prakash Jarwal in abetment of suicide case

Aam Aadmi Party MLA Prakash Jarwal on Wednesday was convicted by a Delhi court in an abetment of suicide case against him and his aides in connection with a doctor’s death in 2020, The Indian Express reported.

Rajender Singh, a doctor from South Delhi, had killed himself at his house on April 18, 2020. Singh had named Jarwal in his suicide note, accusing him of harassment over his water supply business. The police had registered a case against the Aam Aadmi Party legislator on charges of extortion and abetment of suicide.

In 2021, another Delhi court framed the charges against Jarwal in the case. The court had said that there was enough material to show that Jarwal and Kapil Nagar, his aide, had extorted Singh by “threatening to kill him and his family if he did not pay the money for plying his tankers with DJB [Delhi Jal Board]”.

The Aam Aadmi Party legislator and Nagar had been charged under Indian Penal Code Sections 306 (abetment of suicide), 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 384 (punishment for extortion), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention), The Indian Express reported.

Harish, another accused in the case, was charged under Section 506 (criminal intimidation).

On Wednesday, the Delhi court at Rouse Avenue convicted Jarwal and Nagar for abetment of suicide, criminal conspiracy, criminal intimidation and extortion. It convicted Harish for criminal intimidation.

Jarwal’s lawyer had argued that Singh was under pressure to pay Jarwal, but there was nothing to show that the Aam Aadmi Party legislator himself had demanded money. He said that complaint was filed on “observations made in the diary of the deceased and that the complainant himself was not a witness to the demand or extortion of money”.