Hearing on Devi Singh's plea in suicide abetment case adjourned

Nagpur, July 12 (UNI) The hearing on a petition filed by Devi Singh Shekhawat, the husband of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Presidential candidate Pratibha Patil, before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court, seeking dismissal of criminal proceedings against him on a charge of abetting suicide, was today adjourned for another two weeks.

The single bench of Justice A P Lavande, before whom the case came up, set July 26 as the next date for hearing after counsel for the government sought more time to file a reply. Earlier, the case had been adjourned for two weeks on June 28.

The case pertains to the alleged suicide by Kisan Dhage, a teacher in one of the schools of Vidya Bharati Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, controlled by Mr Shekhawat. Dhage allegedly ended his life by consuming poison at his native place, village Songaon in Jalgaon-Jamod tehsil in Buldhana district, on November 15, 1998. He left behind a suicide note alleging that he was taking the extreme step because of harassment from Mr Shekhawat and others.

On July 25, 2000, Dhage's widow Mangala approached the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) at Jalgaon-Jamod with a private criminal complaint alleging that the police had not registered an offence in connection with her husband's suicide. The JMFC issued orders to the police to initiate criminal proceedings in the case against Mr Shekhawat and three others.

Mr Shekhawat initially approached the High Court here against the JMFC's ruling. However, he later withdrew and filed a revision petition before JMFC Jalgaon-Jamod seeking to get the criminal proceedings against him quashed. The revision petition was dismissed by the JMFC, and Mr Shekhawat approached the High Court here again against this order.

While issuing notice on April 11, Justice Lavande had stayed the proceedings against Mr Shekhawat and the three others initiated in the trial court.

UNI