HC rejects bail plea of corporator in abetment to suicide case

The Bombay High Court today rejected the pre-arrest bail plea of a corporator in Pune district in a case of alleged abetment of suicide of a real estate broker over a property dispute.

NCP leader and corporator Deepak Mankar had approached the high court after a sessions court in Pune rejected his anticipatory bail application on June 6.

Earlier this month, the Pune Police had lodged a case against Mankar and six others for allegedly abetting the suicide of real estate broker Jitendra Jagtap, who took the extreme step earlier this month.

The victim had left a purported suicide note in which he named the accused persons responsible for his death.

Justice Mridula Bhatkar today rejected Mankar's plea while observing that the charges levelled against him were of serious nature.

According to the FIR lodged by Jitendra Jagtap's son Jayesh, his father knew Mankar and was taking care of a plot of land at Rasta Peth in Pune since about a decade.

The FIR stated that Mankar along with a builder, Vasant Karnataki, was allegedly putting pressure on Jagtap to give up possession of the land in their favour by signing some blank documents.

The accused persons even threatened Jagtap with dire consequences. This drove him to commit suicide by jumping in front of a moving train on the tracks near B T Kawade Road in Pune on June 2, the FIR stated.

However, Mankar in his anticipatory bail plea claimed that he along with Karnataki were legal owners of the land.

The plea mentioned that Karnataki's firm Try Builders had allegedly entered into an agreement with another realty company over development rights.

Mankar in his plea also said they were only seeking return of the land, and that making such a demand cannot be construed as abetment to suicide.

Moreover, Mankar had given an application to the police on June 1, complaining that Jagtap was demanding money to vacate the land, the plea said.