Three days after the body of a 35-year-old man was found in the toilet of Nandigram Express, the Dadar police have booked five persons, including a woman, for abetment to suicide. The victim, Babasaheb Sabale, a resident of Ghatkopar. reportedly took his own life by hanging himself.
Sabale’s wife, Sunita, 36, had alleged that he took his own life after a false case of outraging a woman’s modesty was filed against him. Following this the Dadar railway police transferred the case to the Dadar police.
As per the Dadar police, on July 21, Sabale, a manual scavenger, was cleaning a drain at Asalpha village in Ghatkopar. Unknowingly, the towel he was wearing slipped, exposing his genitals. The complainant, Rasila Mahendra Chauhan, 34, who was passing by, allegedly misinterpreted the situation and believed Sabale was flashing her. She filed an FIR at Ghatkopar police station on the same day and he was charged under section 79 (acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Upon learning of the FIR, Sabale fled to his hometown in Hingoli, Parbhani, to evade arrest. His wife, Sunita, reported that the police repeatedly questioned her about her husband’s whereabouts. Additionally, Chauhan, her husband and relatives frequently visited their residence and harassed her. Sunita also alleged that Kiran Landge, a former BMC corporator from Chandivali now associated with Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, harassed her as well and threatened the couple with assault.
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Distressed and uncertain of what awaited him upon his return, Sabale took the extreme step of ending his life, Sunita has stated in the FIR.
The police have now charged Chauhan, her husband Mahendra Chauhan, relatives Santosh Chauhan and Andesh Chauhan, and Landge under sections 108 (abetment of suicide), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of peace), among others, of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
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