Chhattisgarh: Woman arrested in connection with BJP leader suicide case who hanged himself over forced conversion

Chhattisgarh police have arrested a woman from Lormi in Mungeli district in connection with the murder of a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who committed suicide in July last year after being allegedly blackmailed by the woman for embracing Christianity.

According to the details that emerged in the case, the arrest of the accused was made following the handwriting of the suicide letter written by a deceased BJP leader, which was thoroughly matched and confirmed by the experts.

Earlier, the Mungeli police, after receiving input from experts, lodged a First Information Report (FIR) against the accused under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on February 27 which subsequently led to the arrest of the accused on the next day.

In a briefing about the arrest of the accused, Sub Divisonal Police Officer, Madhuri Dhirahi informed me that the accused was arrested and produced before a court, where she has been sent to judicial custody.

According to the reports, the police, during the course of the investigation, also fetched cyber records of the deceased, which led to the disclosure of frequent talks between the deceased BJP leader and the accused.

It’s been learned that during the course of interrogation, the accused, Sonia Lakda, informed the police that she destroyed the old cellphone through which she used to communicate with the deceased as it had become useless.

Suicide of the BJP leader

Significantly, local BJP leader and Member of Parliament (MP) representative of Lormi, Shailendra Jaiswal, alias Shailu, committed suicide by hanging himself from an electric pole in July last year. The incident sent shockwaves through the region, as it was later revealed that Shailendra was being blackmailed by a woman residing near his house.

After the incident, the police also recovered as many as six suicide notes from the Kiosk bank being operated by the deceased. It was further revealed that the notes written by Shailendra were of different time intervals, suggesting he was blackmailed by the accused women for a long time.

Allegation of Conversion

The accused in the suicide letter had accused Sonia Lakda of blackmailing and pressuring him for conversion. According to the reports, the accused woman, Sonia Lakda, had asked Shailendra either to convert to Christianity or to provide her with 5 lakh rupees to evade conversion.

It was further revealed that Shailendra had also provided the accused with a sum of Rs 20000 as mentioned by him in his daily notes.

Notably, this is not the first time that a case of conversion by coercive means has come to the fore, and several cases of similar nature have been coming to the fore on a regular interval, indicating the emergence of it as an organised crime.

A number of such cases have also been reported from different localities where the victims have been pressurised by the accused for conversion through separate unlawful means such as blackmail, physical or mental torture, lure, inducement, or by creating rifts between the family members by means of worship methods.

Additionally, several instances of suicides committed by the victims due to persistent torture for conversion have also been emerged from separate States across Bharat.