What caused two sisters to commit suicide one after the other, over three months, in a small hamlet near Jodhpur city? Eight days later, there is little clarity, amid allegations and counter-allegations of sexual assault, blackmail, and police “delay”.
One sister was 32, the other 30. The elder one died on March 20, and the sister on May 15. Police have arrested two men on charges of gangrape, saying more may be held as the investigation continues. The families of the two accused have claimed it is the women who were “blackmailing” them.
Belonging to a village in Nagaur district, around 2 hours away from where they died, the two sisters, who were illiterate, were married on the same day and had two children each. Their husbands work as migrant labourers.
The 22-year-old brother of the sisters blames police. He had gone with the younger one to file an FIR on April 11 against those responsible for the elder sister’s death, he says. “We arrived at around 7 am, and the FIR was lodged at 9 pm. Police tried discouraging us, threatening they would initiate action against us if we insisted. Only after my sister threatened to commit suicide, did police register it,” says the 22-year-old, one of two brothers of the sisters.
The 32-year-old’s husband, who works as a labourer in a nearby district, told The Indian Express that he came to know something was amiss in February this year, when his son told him about a neighbour, Pukhraj Singh, “blackmailing” her. “He said Pukhraj had been threatening to make some videos viral if she didn’t give him money. She refused to say anything out of fear,” he says.
On March 20 night, the husband says, he got to know Pukhraj was back at their home. He rushed home, caught Pukhraj and beat him up, the husband says. As this was happening, his wife who was “embarrassed” about the incident consumed some pesticides kept at home, the husband claims. “We were taking her to a hospital in Jodhpur when she passed away.”
But, in their initial complaint to police, the husband and the woman’s father said she consumed poison as she was depressed. The husband says they were apprehensive of what people would say and hence chose not to name anyone.
Her postmortem details are still awaited.
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It was the younger sister who first raised the blackmail allegations, saying the 32-year-old was being threatened for money by some men who had made intimate videos of her.
On April 11, she filed an FIR against eight people, all residents of nearby hamlets – Mahipal Bhakar, Shivraj Bhakar, Gopal Bhakar, Bijaram, Dinesh, Manoj, Ramaram Chaba, and Pukhraj Gwala. The 30-year-old said the blackmail had been going on for several years, and the men had extorted “Rs 4-5 lakh”.
In the FIR, the 30-year-old also claimed that she too was facing blackmail. She said used to visit an e-mitra centre run by Mahipal to avail government services, and that he promised to get the alleged videos of her sister deleted if she gave him money. She claimed that when she met him, he drugged and raped her, made videos of that, and started blackmailing her.
The 30-year-old’s husband works as a welder in Gujarat.
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As nearly a month passed and police did not act against the accused, the 30-year-old’s frustration grew, says the family. On May 15, she climbed up to an overhead water tank and threatened to jump off unless the accused were arrested. About 6 hours later, as police climbed the tower to cajole her to get down, the 30-year-old reportedly consumed a pesticide and, within an hour, was dead.
SHO of the local police station Lakhram Jhakhar says villagers alerted them about the 30-year-old having climbed up to the overhead water tank. “We tried to make her understand that the investigation is ongoing, but she did not listen. If we tried to climb up, she threatened to jump. At around 4 pm, we finally decided to take a chance and were halfway up, when she took some tablets. We brought her down and took her to a nearby hospital, but the doctor said she is no more,” says Lakharam.
Superintendent of Police, Jodhpur Rural, P D Nitya denies allegations of police dragging their feet. “We have arrested Mahipal and his cousin Gopal. The other accused are being questioned. We are looking into every aspect. The mobile phones of the accused and victims are also being tested by the cyber team for any record of the video or photos that were reportedly being used for blackmailing,” he told The Indian Express.
Family members of Mahipal and Gopal deny the allegations against them, and claim it was the 30-year-old who was blackmailing Mahipal, 31, and that the two were once in a relationship.
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His father Bhanwar Ram says that Mahipal, who had got married when very young, was to be united with his bride when the 30-year-old first made the allegations. “She sent a photo of Mahipal and herself to the girl’s family, telling them about their relationship. Immediately, the bride’s family said they would not send her. The 30-year-old had been blackmailing Mahipal for several years, and took around Rs 3 lakh from him to keep their relationship hidden,” says Bhanwar.
Incidentally, a day before the 30-year-old filed an FIR over her elder sister’s death, Mahipal registered a police complaint saying he had got to know the 30-year-old when she visited his e-mitra centre for official work and that they had stayed in touch over WhatsApp and Instagram. About money transactions between them, Manipal said she transferred money to his PhonePe account, and collected cash in return.
According to Mahipal, after he decided to break off their relationship, she threatened to implicate and defame him. He further alleged that “edited” obscene photos and videos of him and his family were uploaded online and she took money for him threatening to make the content viral.
A police official said they were investigating these allegations.
The family of Pukhraj, who has been questioned by police, also denies the allegations against him. His mother Gogi Devi says her son, a taxi driver, could “never blackmailed or rape anyone”. “He knew the 32-year-old as a neighbour, but nothing more.”
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Incidentally, the 32-year-old’s husband who claimed to have CCTV footage of Pukhraj at their house has not been able to produce it, telling police he had deleted it by mistake.
A neighbour who has a shop adjacent to the overhead water tank where the 30-year-old died says it is “a tragedy for a village and our samaj”. “The accused live near my shop. I still cannot believe that this has happened.”
The neighbour doesn’t want to identify herself, while the others who know both sides refuse to talk.
The 30-year-old’s husband says he hopes they can get “justice”, so that his wife would not have given up her life “in vain”.
