Krishna Poonia (second from left) with Supriya Shrinate and Vijender Singh addresses a media briefing, at AICC Headquarters in New Delhi on Jan. 20, 2023. (Photo | PTI)
JAIPUR: A bailable warrant was issued against former Olympian and Sadulpur (Churu) MLA Krishna Poonia on Tuesday. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court has issued an order for Poonia to appear on March 4. The MLA is accused of inciting Vishnudutt Bishnoi, the then SHO Rajgarh (Churu) police station in Bikaner division, to commit suicide.
On May 23, 2020, Vishnudutt Bishnoi, the then station officer of Rajgarh, had committed suicide. Vishnudutt's brother Sandeep Bishnoi had accused Krishna Poonia of harassing him. Sandeep lodged a police complaint stating that Krishna Poonia was responsible for Vishnudutt's suicide.
The matter was earlier investigated by the CB CID. The local people demanded handing over the investigation to the CBI. After this, the state government handed over the case to the CBI which had imposed FR in its investigation. The FR report was submitted to the ACMM (CBI), Jodhpur. Here the court dismissed the FR while ordering a re-investigation of the case. Also, it summoned Krishna Poonia, issuing a bailable warrant against her.
A screenshot of a WhatsApp chat between the SHO and his activist friend went viral where the police officer claimed that he was "being trapped in dirty politics at the local level".
However, the representative of Krishna Poonia, Virendra Poonia said: We are completely innocent in this case. We will appeal this in the High Court.
It has been accepted in the CBI report that Poonia used to call the police. He was also upset because of this.
After Vishnudutt's suicide, his minor son also hanged himself at home. He was a student of class XI and was quite upset over his father's death. After the death of both father and son, the whole family was broken.
Vishnudutt Bishnoi had written two suicide notes. One suicide note was written to his family members, the other to the then Churu SP Tejaswini Gautam. In this, he wrote: Respected madam, sorry, please, so much pressure was created around me that I could not bear the stress. I tried to give my best to Rajasthan Police till my last breath. It is requested not to disturb anyone. I was not a coward. Just couldn't take the stress. I am my own culprit.
Meanwhile, Krishna Poonia speaking to the media said, "I haven't received the court warrant yet and have received information only from the media. I've been interrogated once but have not been called anywhere for further probe," she added.
