Family members of Mukesh Rohit outside a Vadodara hospital on Tuesday. (Express photo by Bhupendra Rana)
Seven persons, including six members of eight-member Rasulabad gram panchayat in Waghodia taluka of Vadodara district, have been arrested on charges of abetting a Dalit panchayat member and the husband of the sarpanch to commit suicide.
Mukesh Rohit, 36, was found dead in his farm on Monday afternoon after allegedly consuming poison. Though no suicide note has been recovered, Rohit’s wife, Sonal alias Kokilaben Rohit (34), had accused the seven of “traumatising” Rohit and her for the last one and a half years after she got elected as the sarpanch on a general category seat. Sonal has alleged that the accused were conspiring to pass a no-confidence motion against her that drove Rohit to take the extreme step. Notably, Rohit was the president of BJP’s SC/ST cell for Waghodia taluka.
Based on Sonal’s complaint, police arrested the seven persons, including the deputy sarpanch of the village Naginbhai Vasava. The other five panchayat members are Hemantbhai Vasava, Kiranbhai Bhaliya, Vijaybhai Bhatt, Janiyabhai Solanki and Bharat Chauhan. The seventh accused has been identified as Mukesh Rao, whose wife had contested against Sonal for the post of sarpanch.
All the seven have been booked under section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC. Among them, five — Bhaliya, Bhatt, Solanki, Rao and Chauhan — have also been booked under the provisions of the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Deputy Superintendent of Police B D Chaudhary, who is investigating the case, said that all the seven accused have been arrested on the basis of the complaint lodged by Rohit’s wife. Chaudhary said that the allegations levelled by Sonal in her complaint to the police were backed by some villagers who said that the accused were trying to defame her and Rohit by levelling charges of corruption and threatening to get her ousted from the post of sarpanch.
In her complaint to the police, Sonal alleged, “For the last one and a half years, they (the seven accused) have been threatening and troubling us. On various occasions, they even approached my brother-in-law and told him that they won’t let me continue as sarpanch. Even today, around 1 in the afternoon my brother-in-law informed me that they threatened him to pass a no-confidence motion against me… The discrimination is based on the fact that we are from the Scheduled Caste community and they kept threatening us that I rose to power despite being from the lower caste and they won’t let me or my husband live.”
Rohit’s uncle, Morarbhai, said that on Monday there was a meeting regarding bringing the no-confidence motion. “Mukesh (Rohit) had also served a term as sarpanch. After Sonal was elected, every now and then, the panchayat members made allegations that both the husband and wife were swindling money and began blaming them for every little issue in the village. This was troubling Mukesh (Rohit) for a long time, but we did not expect that he would take such a drastic step,” Morarbhai told The Indian Express.
A police officer said that they were contemplating to file a case of accidental death, but Rohit’s family members demanded a case of murder to be registered against the seven accused. Finally, the police decided to register a case of abetment of suicide, the officer said.