But family members and neighbours said the family was on the verge of starving and was forced to take the extreme step.
Six members of a family, including four children, jumped before a speeding train in Allahabad on Tuesday morning, throwing the top brass of the Mayawati government into a tizzy. Senior officials tried to explain the suicides as the fallout of a family dispute.
But family members and neighbours said the family was on the verge of starving and was forced to take the extreme step. Allahabad is one of UP’s 58 districts reeling under a severe drought.
The police said 42-year-old Kamla Shankar Yadav of Bhagipur village in Sarai Inayat area jumped before a train at an unmanned crossing at Kuandih, 45 km from Allahabad, along with his 40-year-old wife Sheela, and their children Nankau (5), Deepu (7), Preeti (9) and Neetu (11).
Soon after the bodies were found, Gangapar SP SN Nigam told reporters that the family had committed suicide because of a financial crisis. Even Yadav’s father Ram Bahadur told the police and the media the same thing.
Bhagipur village pradhan Ram Lakhan told reporters that Yadav was distressed as he had not got work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) and had not even got a BPL (below poverty line) card. Top officials in Lucknow were perturbed as soon as TV channels began flashing the news.
Soon after, Allahabad DM Rajiv Agarwal and DIG Chandra Prakash held a joint press conference and stoutly denied that the suicides had been compelled by poverty or starvation. The officials said a family dispute had led to the tragedy. It was pointed out that some jewellery had recently been stolen from the house of Ranjan Yadav, younger brother of the deceased Kamla, and Ranjan’s wife had charged Kamla of the theft.
Kamla and his family were extremely distressed over this incident and this might have forced them to end their lives. Officials also said that Kamla could not have been starving, as some food and grains were found in his house. He also had Rs450 in his pocket when he died, they said.
Kamla’s brother-in-law lodged an FIR accusing Ranjan Yadav of driving the family to suicide. He has charged Ranjan and his family under Section 306 IPC and alleged that they often used to harass his sister Sheela and her family. But sources said the FIR had been lodged under pressure from district officials to prove their point that a family dispute and not a financial crisis caused the suicides.
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