Suicide abetment: Two Haryana MLAs surrender before CBI court

Two Haryana MLAs, charged with abetting the suicide of a sarpanch of the Karnal district, today surrendered before a CBI court in Panchkula.
O P Jain, an Independent MLA from Panipat Rural and Zile Ram Singh, the Congress legislator from Assandh and former Chief Parliamentary Secretary, surrendered before the court in connection with the death of Karam Singh (60), Jain's counsel said.
Jain's personal assistant, named in the chargesheet, also surrendered along with the two MLAs.
The trio had to surrender as their anticipatory bail pleas have been turned down by various courts, including the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Supreme Court.

The case pertains to the death of Karam Singh, a former sarpanch of Kambopura village in Karnal, on June 7, 2011.
Singh's son Rajinder has alleged that Jain and Sharma used to take money from people on the pretext of giving them government jobs. Karam Singh had also given money to them for jobs for his relatives, but the jobs never happened, claimed Rajinder.

The MLAs even refused to return the money, he alleged.
The chargesheet said that Karam Singh kept asking for the money from the accused, but in vain. After that, he allegedly committed suicide.
The MLAs were earlier booked for murder, but after investigations, they were charged with abetment to suicide.

On Rajinder's plea, the high court ordered handing over of the case to CBI on August 30 last year.
Because of the case, Jain and Zile Ram had to resign from their posts.
The two MLAs have, however, maintained that they have no role in the death of Karam Singh.