Chandigarh, August 15
For Rajvir and Sunita Yadav of Gurgaon, the diamond jubilee year of India’s Independence proved the biggest nightmare of life.
As the country woke up to freedom, the couple lost theirs by landing in jail for having threatened to immolate themselves out of dejection with the system. They were picked up by the police from their Rajiv Nagar residence in Gurgaon last night and kept in preventive custody in the lockup all night.
This evening, the SDM, Gurgaon, remanded the two in judicial custody at Bhondi Jail, after they refused to get bail.
Rajvir’s elder brother Bhupinder Yadav, who was present at the SDM office, told The Tribune: “The authorities were asking them to give an undertaking that they will not resort to anything suicidal.”
Rajvir and Sunita, however, refused to mortgage their freedom to choose and maintained that they were determined to die as they could no longer bear the burden of debt. The two were visibly shaken over the apathy of HUDA, which didn’t even care to respond to their desperate appeal for help.
“They said they didn’t want bail as they had not done anything wrong. They also said the state could keep them in custody as long as it wanted. We are worried about their children who are alone at home. The police has posted two constables at home also,” said Bhupinder Yadav.
Meanwhile, the HUDA chief administrator said today that he was aware of the case.
“But final settlement can take time. There are thousands of such cases, pending with us,” he said, adding to Rajvir and Sunita’s desperation.
Since three years, the two have been pleading with HUDA to give possession of their duly-purchased plot in Sector 38. Under litigation, the plot, however, is still nowhere near being handed over to the couple, who even wrote to the Haryana Governor, apprising him of their decision to end their lives on Independence Day following their failure to get justice.
But today, they lost the last glimmer of hope they had in the system. Facing mental harassment and preventive custody under Sections 107 and 51 of the CrPC (initiated to avoid any untoward incident), the two ended up in jail - the last
resort they had expected on Independence Day.
