Ex-Uttarakhand minister commits suicide just days after his daughter-in-law gets charged

Mr Bahuguna, 59, reportedly contacted the police emergency number 112 from his Haldwani house and informed them of his suicide plot. After the cops arrived, he committed suicide in front of horrified neighbours and witnesses.

“He was really outraged about his daughter-in-claim,” law’s Pankaj Bhatt, a senior police officer, told NDTV. 

When the cops arrived, Mr Bahuguna was standing on the tank, threatening to kill himself.

The police tried to talk him out of it over the loudspeaker, but the politician continued insisting that he had been wrongfully accused. He appeared to be on the verge of collapsing at one point. 

But then he shot himself in the chest and died instantly.

On the complaint of his daughter-in-law, Mr Bahuguna was booked under the strict Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act.

On the basis of a complaint filed by his son Ajay Bahuguna, his daughter-in-law, her father, and a neighbour who had accused him of abuse have been charged with driving him to suicide.

Mr Bahuguna, a member of the Congress, was appointed as a minister of state in the ND Tiwari cabinet in 2004-5.

He worked in the Haldwani Depot workshop as a roads union representative before retiring on October 31.