Woman who attempted suicide over alleged harassment by Ludhiana cop succumbs

The victim’s brother has alleged that the inspector has threatened to implicate him in a forged case and his allies have been harassing them; the inspector has refuted the allegations and has said that he does not know the woman

A woman, who had consumed poison after allegedly being harassed by a police inspector and his family over of a property transfer dispute, succumbed at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) on Friday.

(Representative Image/HT File)

The woman had attempted to end her life at her house on July 2. In her suicide note, she had accused 12 people, inspector Bittan Kumar, posted at Ludhiana Police Line, his father Surinder Atwal, who is the councillor of the ward 84, Bittan’s brothers Sajan Atwal and Pawan Atwal, uncle Jaspal Singh, his son-in-law Ravinder Singh and others, for forcing her to take the extreme step as they were allegedly attempting to grab her property and harassing her.

The next day her family had lodged a complaint with the commissioner of police Rakesh Agarwal, who had asked additional deputy commissioner of police-1 Pragya Jain to hold a probe. However, as no FIR was registered, the victim’s family have lodged a fresh complaint.

“The police are asking us to submit my sister’s original suicide note, but we have submitted a copy as the police could destroy the note. If the police keep threatening us, I will end my life as well. I have already written a suicide note and handed it over to one of my friends,” he said.

The complainant said that their mother, who is illiterate, wanted to transfer the ownership of two properties in his sister’s name in 2013. But, the realtor, Jaspal, fraudulently managed to transfer a part of the property in his son-in-law Ravinder’s name, while ownership of the rest was given to Pardeep Kumar, the inspector’s uncle. The accused allegedly also made his sister sign the documents on the pretext of transferring the property in her name. Later, they started harassing her to vacate the property, which forced her to take the extreme step, her brother alleged.

Inspector Bittan Kumar has refuted the allegations and has said that he does not know the woman.

A few major suicide prevention helpline numbers in India are 011-23389090 from Sumaitri (Delhi-based) and 044-24640050 from Sneha Foundation (Chennai-based).