Jaipur / Man commits suicide after son’s lynching

The father of a 28-year-old Dalit man, who died of head injuries in mid-July after he was allegedly thrashed by a group of men for knocking down an elderly woman in Rajasthan’s Alwar district, has committed suicide, police said on Friday.

Rati Ram Jatav (60) consumed pesticide on Thursday, the police said. His family members claimed he had been distressed as no arrests had been made in the murder of his older son, Harish, and he was receiving threats from the relative of an accused in the case.

On Friday, the family staged a sit-in at Alwar’s Tapukda Community Healthcare Centre, demanding a government job for Harish’s wife. They refused to accept the body for cremation till arrests were made, the police said.

Alwar superintendent of police Anil Paris Deshmukh said Jatav’s family had demanded a compensation of Rs 1 crore. He said those accused in Harish’s killing had been booked under Indian Penal Code section 302 (murder) and investigations were underway.

The incident took a political turn on Friday with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the case. Women and child welfare minister Mamta Bhupesh said the family should wait for the police to complete investigations and slammed the BJP for playing “politics” over a dead man.

Dinesh Jatav, Jatav’s younger son, claimed the Chaupanki police in Alwar district had initially registered an accident case over Harish’s death. On the family’s protests, they registered a murder case against one named and one unidentified person after Jatav filed a police complaint on July 20 that Harish had been thrashed after he knocked down the woman.

Five days later, the inspector general of police (Jaipur range), S Sengathir, visited the family and gave them a compensation of Rs 4.12 lakh.

Dinesh said his father, who was blind, had been frustrated with the alleged police inaction in the case. “For the last two days, my father was not talking to anyone. On August 15 morning, he told me that the father of the accused was threatening him and that he would kill him if he did not take back his complaint.”

He alleged that the police had abused his father when he went to enquire about progress in the case. “We are poor. How long we can fight the system that has left me alone with all the responsibilities of my family? I want justice for my brother and father,” Dinesh said.

Alwar SP Deshmukh has denied the allegations and said the family’s demand (for registering a case of murder) had been fulfilled.