Dalit student suicide case: 2 girls, college owner, principal record statements before police

College owner and Loharu Congress MLA Rajvir Fartiya said the police have arrested his brother-in-law, Hanuman Singh, who was transportation in-charge and his son, Rahul Choudhary, on charges of abetment of suicide of the Dalit woman

The police officials have recorded statements of 12 persons, including two classmates of the deceased, the college owner and Loharu Congress MLA Rajvir Fartiya, college principal Sarita and other staff members, besides the accused at Loharu police station on Sunday.

A police official, requesting anonymity, said they had recorded the statement of two girls as they spoke to the deceased over the phone on December 24, a few hours before she ended her life.

“One of them had an interaction with the victim through a video call and the other talked to her via normal call. Both the girls’ said the deceased never talked about harassment from the college over fees,” said an official.

MLA Fartiya alleged that the police are mounting pressure on girls and college staff to speak against him so that he can be implicated in a fake case.

“The people of the constituency know about this matter and the police are stretching this case to please former minister JP Dalal. In the last nine days, I was in Kerala and West Bengal and joined the probe as police contacted me. The truth will prevail,” he added.

The police officials said they have evidence of college authorities taking fees from 55 Dalit students, whose fee was waived by the state government, adding that the college has not maintained a register and neither formed an internal complaint committee, and CCTV cameras are not functioning.

On Sunday, Fartiya appeared before Bhiwani superintendent of police (SP) Nitish Aggarwal, SIT in-charge Dalip Singh and other officials, who grilled him for three hours.

Talking to HT, the Bhiwani SP said they are probing whether the deceased woman had appeared for exams or not and how much fee she had paid to the college, which talks about providing free education to all students.

“ We have seized two mobile phones from Rahul, the phones of the deceased and transport in-charge, which were sent to a laboratory. The investigation will proceed further after retrieving chats and phone call details. We have sought documents from the college related to fees,” he added.

The SP refused to share more details pertaining to the role of the MLA and other people.

The deceased woman’s uncle told HT that the woman’s father had received a phone call from college principal Sarita on November 14 to deposit the fee, otherwise, they wouldn’t allow her to appear for the fifth-semester exam, adding they had recorded the phone call conversation.

“ We want to ask the MLA, how his brother-in-law’s son Rahul came in contact with my niece if he was not active in the college. The police should check the last three months’ CCTV footage of the college to ascertain the MLA’s claims that Rahul has no connection with the college. Rahul was continuously harassing my niece and he was seeking unethical activities. The police should provide justice to us,” he added.

Reacting to Fartiya’s allegations, Dalal said he is not politicising the issue but he wants the deceased Dalit student to get justice.

“ I want to ask Fartiya ji, whether you have any accountability or not in the case as the woman was studying in his college and the police have arrested your brother-in-law and his son on abetment to suicide charge. If you think that backing a poor family is politics, then I am doing politics. If the MLA has no role, why is he scared of investigation,” the former minister said.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times

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