Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA and former state forest minister was booked for abetment of suicide on Monday after a 40-year-old woman was found dead at his bungalow in Bhopal on Sunday. An FIR under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered against Umang Singhar on the basis of his recorded conversations/chat history with the woman and her son’s statement, police said.
Bhopal’s deputy inspector general of police, (DIG), said the woman and the MLA had planned to get married but she decided to end her life instead due to regular fights with the politician.
“The woman had been living in the MLA’s bungalow for the past 20 days while he was visiting his assembly constituency of Gandhwani in Dhar district,” additional superintendent of police (ASP) Rajesh Bhadoriya said.
He added that the house help employed at the Congress leader’s Shahpura bungalow first discovered the body and informed the police. Police claimed it recovered a suicide note from the woman’s articles accusing Singhar of anger issues and lack of clarity on some matters.
Statements of the woman’s 20-year-old son, her mother and the Congress leader, have been recorded.
Her son told police that his widowed mother met Singhar on a matrimonial website in September last year and they decided to get married. An engagement ceremony was held in December last year.
“They met many times in Bhopal and at the woman’s home town in Punjab in the past few months. Recently, she told her family she was in depression due to regular fights with Singhar,” the ASP said. Singhar is separated from his wife.
MLA said it was heartbreaking for him to lose such a “dear friend”. “I am cooperating with the police in the investigation but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government is doing dirty politics on this [issue].”
BJP leader and MP home minister Narottam Mishra said the police will take further action on the basis of investigation.
