By IANS
Nagpur : The Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench Thursday deferred by two weeks hearing on a petition of UPA presidential candidate Pratibha Patil's husband Devisingh Shekhawat challenging a sessions court's decision against him in a case of abetting suicide.
Justice C.L. Pangarkar granted government pleader Indira Bodade's request for two weeks' time to "receive instructions from the government and file reply" to the petition that was posted for hearing Thursday. The court did not fix the next date of hearing.
Patil is contesting the July 19 presidential elections as the candidate of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
Shekhawat had moved the high court against the decision of the Khamgaon district and sessions court upholding a lower court's order against him on the charge of abetting the suicide of a teacher in a school run by an education society that he headed.
The teacher, Kisan Dhage, employed in a school run by Shekhawat's Vidyarthi Shikshan Mandal in Sungaon village of Vidarbha's Buldana district, committed suicide Nov 16, 1998 – 16 months after his salaries were stopped and over a month after the high court had ordered the school authorities to pay the same.
In a suicide note left in his pocket, Kisan had alleged harassment by Shekhawat and other office bearers of the education society. He said it was impossible for him to feed his family and lead honourable life in the absence of salary for 15 long months.
Two years after Dhage's suicide, the judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) court in Jalgaon had upheld his widow Mangala's charge of abetment of suicide against Pratibha Patil's husband and four others in the school management committee. On Feb 7, 2007, the session's court in Khamgaon too upheld the charge.
Dhage's travails began in August 1997 with his transfer from Sungaon village in Buldana district to an Ashram School in Amravati district. He was asked to work as hostel warden as there was no vacancy in the teaching cadre. But his salary was stopped as the education department held the transfer illegal.
While directing the Vidyarthi Shikhan Mandal to release Dhage's pending salary forthwith, the high court had also ordered the education society to reinstate Dhage as a teacher in any of the schools run by it. But with neither of the high court's Oct 8, 1998 orders being complied till Nov 16, Dhage ended his life.
Meanwhile, a case of the murder of Jalgaon district Congress Committee president V.G. Patil, involving Pratibha Patil's younger brother G.N. Patil, is likely to come up before the Jalgaon district and sessions court later this month.
The court last month allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a supplementary charge sheet in the case within two months.
The CBI, on being directed by the Bombay High Court's Aurangabad bench to take over the three-year-old murder case, had applied for permission to file an additional charge sheet in the light of a petition by V.G. Patil's widow Rajani alleging involvement of G.N. Patil and former MP Vishwas Patil in the crime.
Following Rajani Patil's plaint and days before his death in jail earlier this year, the murder accused Raju Mali had pleaded with the police in a recorded statement that the persons named by her be made accused in the case.