I love: Far from the gaze of the media, police personnel and political attention enjoyed by the village of Surana in the district of Jalore in Rajasthan, Suki Kanwar is in shock.
She is the wife of Chail Singh, 40, the headmaster of the ‘upper caste’ school charged in the death of a 9-year-old Dalit boy, Inder Meghwal, from Jalore. Since her arrest, she has been suffering from what appear to be epileptic seizures.
“Tension mein usko mata aati rehti hai (she suffers from stress-induced seizures),” Chail Singh’s cousin Mangal Singh said as Suki suddenly passed out in the middle of a conversation with ThePrint.
It’s been almost a week since Singh’s arrest.
The principal is accused of fatally beating Inder for drinking in a matka (clay pot) was meant for him, and the boy’s family alleged a caste motive for the incident.
The incident – of Singh punching Inder – reportedly happened on July 20 at Saraswati Vidya Mandir, a private school in Surana. The boy died on August 13 while receiving intensive medical treatment in Ahmedabad.
Chail Singh was arrested the same day for murder, as well as under sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989. The police investigation is ongoing.
However, the caste angle has been questioned in light of statements made by local residents.
Questions have also been raised about the cause of the boy’s death, in light of findings that Inder Meghwal had been undergoing treatment for a middle ear infection for several years which caused a painful abscess to form. behind the eye, blockages in the brain and eventually triggered sepsis in the days leading up to his death.
Singh’s family also deny the caste angle, saying the principal “made a mistake in paying money to Meghwals for Inder’s treatment”.
The Meghwal family previously told ThePrint that Chail Singh paid them Rs 1.5 lakh as a ‘settlement’.
Denying the allegation, Chail Singh’s father, Ushk Singh, 70, said: “Usne paise dekar galti kar di (he made a mistake giving them money).
“The transaction is now called ‘hush money’. It was nothing like that. He was worried that he had accidentally hurt the child,” he added.
None of the family members know how Singh managed to give such a large sum to the Meghwals. “He had to give it out of school funds,” Ushk Singh added.
Singh also owns farmland with his three brothers and is involved in agriculture.
Kheta Ram Bhil, an indentured laborer who has been working on Chail Singh’s land for almost five years, was present at the Singh’s house during ThePrint’s visit.
Bhil said he had never been discriminated against by Chail Singh. “He ate with me and invited me to his house. We drank water together in the fields,” he added.
Chail Singh’s sons – Laxman, 14, and Gopal, 10 – who are also students at Saraswati Vidya Mandir, also told ThePrint that everyone in the school drinks from the same water tank.
Chail Singh is currently housed at Sayla Police Station. According to senior sources in the district administration, the police are still awaiting the results of the histopathological analysis of the autopsy report to understand the cause of Inder’s death.
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sick parents
Singh’s family lives in a dilapidated house located more than 50 kilometers from Surana. Ideally, the journey should take no more than two hours, but navigating around waterlogged potholes and roaming livestock on narrow, rugged roads lined with thorny shrubbery can take up to five hours.
To get to Surana, Singh had to walk about six to seven kilometers to catch a bus. To avoid the hassle of daily commuting, Singh and his two sons lived on the school premises.
“He came home once every two weeks. The day of his arrest, he was returning home with his children. He was arrested halfway and we had no information about it,” Mangal Singh said.
With their main breadwinner under arrest, the family doesn’t know what to expect in the coming days. Chail Singh was earning a monthly salary of around Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000, they said.
The family was building another authentic premises in their compound after the existing structure was damaged by rain, but with Chail Singh under arrest, construction came to a halt.
His mother, Dariya Kanwar, 60, is currently undergoing tests for suspected colon cancer, while Ushk Singh is being treated for stomach ulcers, added Mangal Singh, who claimed to be undergoing treatment for heart problems. Mental Health.
“No one has come to meet us yet,” he said. “Not the police, not the media.”
(Editing by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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