Daughter's death not linked to Vyapam scam: Victim's father

The father of trainee sub-inspector Anamika Kushwaha (25), whose body was recovered from a pond in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh on Monday, claimed that her death was not linked to the Vyapam scam.

Her father, Ram Lakhan Singh, who is a head constable at Ambah police station in Morena district of Madhya Pradesh, told IANS that his daughter was depressed due to problems in her marital life.

"My daughter was continuously being harassed by her husband and father-in-law, whose demands for money and other things never ended. This is despite giving them dowry worth Rs.13 lakh, including a car worth Rs.8.5 lakh, during the wedding in June last year," Singh told IANS over phone from Ambah in Morena district.

So far 46 deaths, mostly in mysterious circumstances, are being linked to the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board scam, better known as the Vyapam scam.

Anamika, who was recruited through the Examination Board, was undergoing training at Jawahar Lal Nehru Police Academy in Sagar. She used to stay at the academy hostel.

"Her death was no where related to Vyapam because her selection was based on merit. We did not lodge any complaint against her husband's family because I didn't want her marital life to get affected," Singh added.

According to reports, the admission and recruitment scam involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen in Madhya Pradesh can be pegged at Rs.20,000 crore and involves about 30,000 people.

"I got a call about 6 a.m. from the Sagar Police Station that my daughter's body was found in a pond close to the academy. We reached the Zilla Chikitsalaya (hospital) in Sagar district, where the autopsy was conducted, around 4 pm to claim the body," said Singh, who had to travel about 500 km with his wife to reach Sagar.

According to him, she had a troubled married life and was not happy despite having cleared the professional examination in July 2014.

"I got her admitted to the academy about five moths ago. But she kept getting calls from her husband demanding money. Her friends at the academy told me that she was under tremendous pressure from her husband. She could not sleep properly and was tense," said Anamika's father.

Anamika's husband, according to Singh, works for a private bank. "My daughter had asked for Rs.30,000 from her husband for her sustenance at the academy. He refused to give her the money and later I gave it to her. She was about to get four months' salary this month, but her husband kept forcing her to share a portion of her salary," said Singh.

A police officer at Ambah police station told IANS that she had a lot of problems in her marital life and this could be a case of suicide.

Meanwhile, a doctor who performed the autopsy on Namrata Damor, whose body was found on railway tracks in Ujjain in January, 2012, claimed on Wednesday that she was murdered and there was not even one percent chance of a natural death, media reports said.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said here on Wednesday that Damor's death did not have anything to do with Vyapam. Chouhan was in Delhi to meet party colleague and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

(Sidhartha Dutta can be contacted at sidhartha.d@ians.in)

--Indo-Asian News Service

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