After dozens of Meerut attorneys demanded police action in a suicide case of his 50 year old colleague, BJP MLA of Hastinapur Dinesh Khatik and 14 others were booked Saturday night on the charge of instigating suicide.

The locals and Omkar Tomar’s family have called for a mahapanchayat to guarantee him justice. He was found hanged in his Meerut home on Saturday and, in a three-page suicide note, blamed Khatik for forcing him to take the extreme step. The MLA called the accusation false and claimed the case was politically motivated.

After learning of the suicide, dozens of lawyers staged a sit-in in front of the Ganganagar police station and blocked the Meerut-Pauri road for more than an hour on Saturday night. They had demanded that Khatik and others be searched in the case.

In a police complaint, Omkar’s son Luv claimed that his in-laws filed a case against him under the Dowry Prohibition Act at the Khatauli Police Station a few months ago. Khatik and others pressured Omkar to pay 14 lakh rupees to Luv’s in-laws to settle the dowry case, the complaint said.

“We have registered an FIR on the basis of a complaint in which his (Omkar) son (Luv) has made serious charges of complicity in suicide and has mentioned almost 15 people (including the BJP legislator) … Khatik has claimed that he was only trying to mediate between the two groups. We still don’t have any evidence to suggest that the legislator created some kind of mental pressure or forced the lawyer to give money for mediation, ”said Meerut SSP Ajay Sahni.

Luv, Omkar’s eldest son, said the villagers would hold a mahapanchyat in a day or two “to guarantee justice for my father.”

Meanwhile, lawyers threatened Sunday to intensify the protest if the MLA and others were not arrested. “The police are trying every trick to remove the name of the MLA from the FIR, but we will force them to take action against it,” said Mahaveer Tyagi, president of the Meerut Bar Association.

Khatik said: “The case against me is politically motivated and unfounded because the opposition leaders are trying to denigrate the image of the BJP and our CM.”

.