Chhattisgarh: Woman corporator dies by suicide, journalist held for `abetment'

A woman corporator allegedly committed suicide in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district after accusing a local journalist of spreading misinformation about her, police said on Friday.

The journalist, identified as Amit Pandey, has been arrested on the charge of abetment of suicide, they said.

Sanjana Sharma (40), a corporator of the ruling Congress in the Raigarh municipal corporation, allegedly consumed a poisonous substance on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, said Abhinav Kant Singh, Station House Officer (SHO) of Chakradharnagar police station.

She died during treatment at a hospital on Thursday afternoon, he added.

A handwritten complaint addressed to the Chakradharnagar SHO was recovered from Sharma's room which stated that the corporator was disturbed over `false' news reports published against her by Pandey, the officer said.

She also accused Pandey. who works for a news portal, of spreading misinformation against her on a social media platform, and said if anything happened to her, the journalist should be held responsible, the SHO said.

Based on the complaint, Pandey was arrested under IPC section 306 (abetment of suicide) and further probe was on, he added.