Tej Partap Singh, owner of Hotel Central Park, Sector 17, was acquitted by a court here on Friday in a 2016 abetment to suicide case of a waiter, Madan Gusain, 22, a native of Garhwal, who had been working in the hotel for one-and-a-half years.
The waiter had committed suicide immediately after sharing a post on the Facebook wall, blaming his employer for the extreme step, following which his employer, Tej Partap Singh, was booked.
In January, the UT Police filed a chargesheet under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)against the accused for abetting the waiter’s suicide in 2016.
According to the complaint, Gusain consumed a poisonous substance to end his life minutes after blaming the hotel owner in a Facebook post for not giving him his salary and making him work for extra hours and warning that he would be sacked.
Gusain was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), but died later.
Defence counsel Harish Bharadwaj argued, “The authenticity of the suicide note could not be proved as the phone of the witness, who had taken print of the note, was not taken into possession by the prosecution and was not sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CSFL) for examination. The mobile of the victim was sent to the CFSL, but they could not unlock it,” said the counsel.
{{/usCountry}}Defence counsel Harish Bharadwaj argued, “The authenticity of the suicide note could not be proved as the phone of the witness, who had taken print of the note, was not taken into possession by the prosecution and was not sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CSFL) for examination. The mobile of the victim was sent to the CFSL, but they could not unlock it,” said the counsel.
{{/usCountry}}The prosecution’s failure to prove its case led to the acquittal of the accused.