Assam: 2 held for ‘abetting’ Dibrugarh animal rights activist’s suicide

DIBRUGARH: A day after Vineet Bagaria, a 32-year-old prominent animal rights activist in Dibrugarh hanged himself, police on Friday arrested two persons on charges of abetting his suicide.
A team of Dibrugarh police arrested the two — Baidullah Khan and Nishant Sharma — from Lumding.
On Thursday, Agarwal who is the co-founder of Animal Welfare People (AWP), hanged himself to death at his residence on Shani Mandir Road in Dibrugarh. Before his death, Vineet who owned the H2O bar in Dibrugarh town, had recorded a video on his cell phone where he accused Baidullah Khan, Sanjay Sharma and Nishant Sharma of physically and mentally torturing him and his family over a piece of rental property.
Vineet’s father, Kailash Kumar Bagaria, a prominent chartered accountant of the town, had filed an FIR at Dibrugarh police station on Thursday evening naming the three persons responsible for his son’s death. Vineet’s death had caused widespread outrage in the town as he was quite popular for his helpful nature. He was often seen on the streets of Dibrugarh feeding stray dogs and tending to abandoned and sick animals.
Sources said for the last several years, there were frequent confrontations between Vineet’s family and Baidullah Khan. Vineet’s father is said to have given a space on the ground floor of his residence on the Shani Mandir Road to Sanjay Sharma to run a business but he had allegedly sub-let the space to Baidullah Khan who then opened a motorcycle spare parts shop.
The Khemani family has been asking them to vacate the property for the past several years but they didn’t give any heed to his request, sources said. The matter also went to court. Kailash Kumar alleged that the accused did not pay rent for the property but physically and mentally harassed them which he said led to his son’s taking his own life.