Arrest warrants issued against two Haryana legislators

A Haryana court Thursday issued non-bailable warrants (NBW) against two legislators in connection with the death of a village headman in 2011.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh, issued the NBWs against legislators O.P. Jain and Zile Ram Sharma. Jain's personal assistant Rajinder Sharma has also been issued a NBW. All three had allegedly refused to accept court summons earlier.

Jain was Haryana's transport and tourism minister earlier while Sharma was a chief parliamentary secretary (CPS). Both were forced to resign in June 2011.

Both were booked by the police June 2011 following the murder of village headman (Sarpanch) Karam Singh near Karnal town, 130 km from here. His body, with stab wounds was found near the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) in Karnal.

The CBI filed a chargesheet against them in the court earlier this month. They have been charged for abetment to suicide of Karam Singh.

Just a day before his death, the village headman, who was in his late 50s, had submitted a written complaint to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and police against the minister and the CPS about a fraud committed on him.

Karam Singh had accused Jain and Sharma of duping him of nearly Rs.13 lakh on the pretext of providing government jobs to his son and two nephews. But they neither provided the jobs nor returned the money, his complaint had said.

Incidentally, a witness to the death of Karam Singh, Chamail Singh, was too found dead under mysterious circumstances just a week later.

After the Haryana Police investigation into the murder case was found shoddy, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had, August last year, handed over the investigation to the CBI.

Police had given a "clean chit" to both the leaders, who were part of the Hooda government, and said it was not a murder but as a case of suicide.