SUSPENDED FROM the forest division for now, Deputy Conservator of Forest Vinod Shivkumar, arrested for abetting the suicide of Harisal vary forest officer Deepali Chavan, was remanded in police custody until March 29.
Shivkumar was offered earlier than a neighborhood court docket in Dharni, the tehsil headquarters of Melghat amid protests, together with by some forest division staffers as properly, on Saturday. The court docket granted two-day custody for Shivkumar.
Protesters demanded that Shivkumar needs to be taken from the police station to the court docket on foot, however police whisked him away in a car.
Chavan had shot herself within the chest together with her service pistol at her official residence in Harisal on Thursday night. Police additionally recovered a notice during which Shivkumar has been accused of harassing her in official work, threatening to chargesheet her and sending her to jail. The notice additionally accused him of abusing her and acknowledged that he was answerable for her taking the acute step.
Police arrested Shivkumar from Nagpur railway station on Friday. Melghat Tiger Reserve Field Director Srinivas Reddy has written a letter to go of forest drive (HoFF), citing a number of cases of being useful in direction of Chavan on occasion and terming his sudden switch as “violation of principles of natural justice”.
In the letter, Reddy mentioned the notice contained phrases of reward for him, and that Chavan revered him and felt protected in his firm. Reddy has additionally identified that the notice even thanked him for her switch from Dhulghat forest vary to Harisal regardless of an inquiry in opposition to her in a MNREGS cost case. Reddy additionally famous that he had saved her from being arrested within the matter in addition to in one other case throughout an anti-encroachment drive. “In both instances, Chavan thanked me with happiness,” Reddy has mentioned, attaching copies of WhatsApp exchanges together with her.
Reddy has additionally listed sanctions of her go away functions over the previous two years, during which he has identified 35 days of go away in 2019, 20 in 2020 and 5 in 2021.
He has mentioned she had orally complained in opposition to Shivkumar’s conduct, following which he had admonished him and requested him to behave.
“All these things were not taken into consideration and I was transferred on Friday, which is against the principles of natural justice,” Reddy has mentioned, including, “I request you to reconsider the decision and give me justice.”
Authorities and Chavan’s household have clarified that she was not pregnant on the time of her demise. A piece of media reported that she was 5 months’ pregnant when she shot herself on Thursday.
Special Inspector General of Police C Ok Mina and Civil Surgeon Shyamsundar Nikam advised The Indian Express that the stories about her being pregnant have been incorrect. Chavan’s husband Rajesh Mohite additionally confirmed that she was not pregnant.
