When a five-year-old girl walked into the office of IG Police in Meerut district and offered him her piggybank as bribe to get her mother’s killers arrested, she delivered a stinging slap on the state of affairs in Uttar Pradesh.
“Take this, but arrest those who forced my mother to commit suicide,” the girl innocently told the police official. When IG Ram Kumar asked her what prompted her to bring her piggybank, the girl blurted, “Sab kehte hain ki paise ke bina kuchh nahin hoga. Everybody says nothing happens unless you offer money.”
The five-year-old girl Manvi, whose mother had committed suicide two months ago after being harassed by her husband, had come to the police station with her maternal grandfather Shanti Swaroop Sharma and uncle Rohit Sharma to meet IG Ram Kumar.
Manvi stayed back in the room and after her grandfather and uncle walked out, she took out her piggybank from a bag and gave it to the official.
IG Ram Kumar asked the girl to take back her piggybank and assured her that he would take action against those responsible for her mother’s death. As she walked out of the police official’s room, her piggybank fell and broke open.
A disheartened Manvi collected the coins in the piggybank and broke into tears. Her uncle assured her that he would buy her a new piggybank. Manvi’s mother Seema was married to Sanjiv Kaushik five years ago and she is the only daughter of the couple.
According to reports, soon after their marriage, Sanjiv had started torturing Seema for dowry and the latter had been staying with her parents since the past four years.
Seema had even filed a case against husband Sanjiv and her in-laws in court but no action was taken.
According to her father, three days before she committed suicide, Seema had gone to the Sardhana police to inquire about progress in her complaint but an inspector sarcastically told her that action would be taken in the case only if she committed suicide.
Three days later, on 29 April, Seema committed suicide by hanging. Seema’s family lodged a complaint against Sanjiv, his brothers and parents for abetment to suicide and dowry harassment. The police arrested Sanjiv but no action was taken against the other accused.
Seema’s father Shanti Swaroop Sharma said that the police was conniving with the accused and was not taking further action in the matter.