Mumbai, March 15: Chartered accountant Nidhi Gupta first flung her children from the 19th floor of Sahyadri building in Mumbai's Malad (East) on March 8 and then took the final plunge to darkness and oblivion.
In his statement to Dindoshi police, Nidhi's father pieces together her tragic story, how she was constantly harassed by her in-laws and how her husband could not muster the courage to live separately - a story which is a daily fare in the umpteen TV soap serials, but real and tragic, nevertheless.
Nidhi was caught in a grim situation - her husband had failed as a businessman, she had to share a 3 BHK flat with her brother-in-law, where the sister-in-law called the shots, and she had to toil both at home and in college which she taught accountancy, reports Mumbai Mirror.
Nidhi's father, Worli-based stockbroker Bimal Jalan, told police that his daughter was so rattled by the hostile atmosphere in the joint family that everytime she stepped out of the house, she left the kids – Gaurav, 6, and Mahika, 3 – either with her friends or relatives.
That explains why Nidhi decided to kill her children before she ended her own life. Even her father's statement, however, does not throw any light on what could have been the immediate trigger for Nidhi to have felt that she had reached a point of no return. Even the night before her death in a phone call to her mother, Nidhi only enquired about her aunt's health who was undergoing surgery. We had no inkling she would do something like this. I am severely diabetic. Perhaps, that's why my daughter never spoke to me freely about her problems as it would trouble me. I regret that so much now,” Jalan told Mumbai Mirror.
Her family knew that she was in an unhappy marriage and in some way holds itself responsible for pushing her to the edge. “We brushed much of what she would tell us as usual problems of married life. But now I feel I should have been more sensitive. I should have been able to see the bigger problem through the innocuous mentions she made of the smaller ones. Had I done that, my daughter would have been alive today,” said Jalan while speaking to Mumbai Mirror at his Worli residence.
The house in Madhuban Society on Worli Hill Road is abuzz with activity with men busy making phone calls and sending emails as women struggle to balance the household with the cloud of grief hanging over it. The family, close relatives, friends and some NGOs will hold a candle-light vigil on Wednesday at the spot Nidhi died to seek justice for her.
It's an obvious attempt to keep the pressure up on the police, who have looked lacking intent to get after Nidhi's in-laws. On Monday, the police arrested Nidhi's sister-in-law, Sunita, from her father's house in Goregaon. Nidhi's husband and inlaws have now filed for anticipatory bail in Sessions Court through their lawyer.
According to Jalan's police statement, Nidhi was a brilliant student who passed her B Com and Chartered Accountancy exams simultaneously. “She was independent but friendly, energetic but calm and very hard working. Before marriage she used to assist me in my stock brokerage business.”
When Nidhi married Pawan on March 9, 2002, her in-laws demanded that she remain a housewife. She agreed and moved in with them at their Bhulabhai Desai house near Haji Ali, where Pawan's elder brother Rakesh and his wife Sunita also lived. But this sacrifice, did not help. Barely a year after the marriage, problems started between the couple.
A year after the marriage, Pawan called me up saying he wanted to have a conversation on his married life. I later learnt Pawan had turned alcoholic and was addicted to paan masala and cigarette. He paid little attention to the family business and spent most of his time loitering around with friends. I told my daughter that I would speak to her in-laws. But she dissuaded me from doing that as it could have jeopardised her marriage. She said she herself would speak to Pawan,” Jalan statement says.
owever, this promise was never kept. After their son Gaurav was born, Nidhi thought Pawan would realise his responsibilities and improve. “Nidhi said Pawan had shown improvement after Gaurav was born. But I found that his arrogance and his disinterest in work only increased. But Nidhi was sure of situation improving eventually,” the statement adds.
What made matters worse was her inlaws' attitude. “They favoured Sunita over Nidhi as Rakesh (Sunita's husband) was in control of the business and the finances in the house. Before Gaurav was born, Nidhi had an abortion silently carried out by her inlaws without informing us. This hurt Nidhi badly,” Jalan says in the statement.
Nidhi got some respite in 2006 when she, along with her husband and his parents, moved to Surat where Pawan began managing another branch of the family's polyester texturing yarn business in Silvassa. After two years, they bought an apartment where Nidhi's daughter Mahika was born later.
Back in Mumbai, however, Rakesh suffered losses in business sold the family's Bhulbhai Desai Road apartment. Rakesh then bought an apartment in Sahyadri building in Malad east.
Nidhi now had a job in an accountancy firm in Surat. However, d i f f e r e n c e s between Nidhi and her sisterin-law were deepening. “Gaurav had developed a skin infection and Sunita wanted to consult a Paediatrician in Mumbai. Sunita asked her not to come to Mumbai. When Nidhi still landed up in Mumbai and called Sunita, the latter asked her to stay away from her house. I wanted to talk to Nidhi's in-laws, but she again stopped me,” says Jalan's statement adding.
THE LAST STRAW
The real trouble started in 2010. “Rakesh told Pawan and his father that due to financial trouble in business, it was impossible to maintain two households and that the younger one must sell the Surat house and move back to Mumbai,” the statement says.
In April 2010, the entire family came to stay in Rakesh's 3 BHK Sahyadri flat, where, the statement alleges, Nidhi got little space and had to share cupboards with her in-laws.
The statement alleges that life got terribly and unpleasantly busy for Nidhi from here on. “Nidhi was always in a hurry. She had to not only manage her job as a lecturer at Saraf College but had to also keep everyone, including Sunita's kids, happy at home.”
Pawan, meanwhile, was not helping the matters. “Nidhi was first forced to go to Surat. When she eased into the situation there, she was forced to come back to Mumbai. This caused her a lot of mental agony,” the statement says.
“On March 8, 2011, in the morning I got a call from Rakesh around 9 am saying, ‘please come to Sanjeevani hospital in Malad. Nidhi and her children have fallen off the building.' I reached there at 10 am, but could not find Nidhi and the kids. No one was even replying to my questions. I had lost control and hit Pawan asking what he had done to my daughter and grandchildren. Then a police officer showed me their bodies in an ambulance. I almost fainted. No one there looked sad or seemed to show any remorse. I am sure that my daughter was mentally harassed for several years.”
Nidhi's elder sister Nupur Jivrajka sums up her sister's problem saying, “Because she was well-behaved and never complained, trying to deal with all her problems herself, her in-laws took her for granted. They thought she would never retaliate.”
