Jodhpur: A video has surfaced days after the death allegedly by suicide of 11 members of a family of Hindu migrants from Pakistan. The Hindu migrants died by suicide in a village in Jodhpur district. In the video one of the victims gives a detailed account of the ‘harassment’ they were facing. The harassment of the Hindu migrants was being done by their relatives and a purported gang.
The one-and-a-half hours long video was in the mobile phone of Laxmi, one of the victims. The mobile phone was found in the shack where the bodies were discovered, police said.
In the video, Laxmi states that the family came to India in 2015 due to fears of religious persecution in the neighbouring country. However, they got embroiled in a row with their relatives here as well as a ‘gang’. She alleged that the ‘gang’ tried to control their lives.
“We had no idea that we would be subjected to a new ordeal in India not only by others but by our own people,” Laxmi said. She said the family fled Pakistan and came to India on the insistence of Dhandali. She is the estranged wife of Laxmi’s brother Kewal Ram who is the lone surviving member of the family. Dhandali’s family was already settled in Jodhpur.
“Right after we arrived here, Dhandali shifted to her parents’ house. She started harassing us along with her family and others, claiming the custody of her children,” Laxmi said. In the video, Laxmi alleged that there was a racket run by a gang that tried to control the lives of those who came to live in Jodhpur.
The gang scared the migrants into following its advise in order to remain safe and protected, she said. “These gang members began harassing us also and had eye on all of us four sisters. One of our sisters died due to their pressures in 2017. They also forcibly managed to get our brother Ravi married to Sharifa, a cousin of Dhandali, who also sided with them to harass us,” Laxmi said in her elaborate account.
Laxmi and her sister Priya were both qualified nurses. Priya had been working in a nearby clinic but Laxmi could not work as her certificate was destroyed by this alleged gang, she said. Laxmi also alleged that the family had approached the police but they did not take any action.
Laxmi said the family had shifted to Dechu tehsil to work in farms to escape the harassment in Jodhpur. However, that move did not help. She said she filed a complaint with the Dechu police but they also allegedly harassed her family.
The police cases began with the first case registered by Dhandali in Mandore police station July 16, 2019. It accused her husband Kewal Ram and his sisters of harassment. This was followed by a series of cases and counter cases from both the sides against each other, Laxmi stated in the video.
SP (Jodhpur Rural) Rahul Barhat said that all the documents related to the case and complaints have been collected and are being investigated. “Kewal Ram has given some names in his FIR and we have been interrogating them in order to get to the bottom of the allegations in the video,” said Barhat.
The 11 family members, including five children, were found dead Sunday morning inside the hut they lived in at Lodta village of Dechu area. The autopsies indicated the consumption of a poisonous substance, police had said Monday, pointing at the possibility of a mass suicide.