Freed men recall trauma, thought their life was over

The day police arrested me was the worst day of my life. I cried for the first two days in prison; I couldn’t sleep. I thought my life was over and I would be in prison for 5 to 10 years

DAYACHAND MASTER, after SIT gave a clean chit to him

GURUGRAM: Perched on a plastic chair in his courtyard, 46-yearold Dayachand Master smiles weakly. He is surrounded by friends and relatives who have come to meet him a day after a city court acquitted him of shooting the human resource (HR) manager of a Japanese company in Manesar.

Master is a relative of Joginder Singh, who once worked in the same company. The duo was scooped up and sent to jail soon after Dinesh Sharma was shot at by two motorcycle-borne men on June 7. “The duo was arrested as the HR manager suspected Singh’s involvement in the shooting; he was recently sacked from the company, and police followed his suspicion,” police commissioner KK Rao said, adding that police suspected Master had helped Singh exact revenge.

“The day police arrested me was the worst day of my life. I cried for the first two days in prison; I couldn’t sleep. I thought my life was over and I would be in prison for 5 to 10 years,” Master said at his house in Rathiwas village.

A week after the crime, on June 13, a special investigative team (SIT), headed by a deputy commissioner of police-level officer, was formed to probe the incident. The SIT gave Singh and Master a clean chit in the case after the Delhi police arrested Kishan Kumar last week.

Gurugram police spokesperson Subhash Boken said the police had valid reasons for arresting them. “The duo was given a clean chit only after Krishan Kumar confessed to shooting the HR manager.”

At Singh’s house, his father Kavar Singh (46) was happy that his son was back home after spending a month in the district jail for a crime they were convinced he did not commit.

“Our family went through a lot of trauma in the past one month. We had stopped going out after he was arrested. We thought our child was trapped; no one was listening to us. Whatever was done was a violation of our human rights,” Kavar Singh said.

This is the second time in the recent past that the Gurugram police arrested a wrong person, and had to later eat crow for it.

In the infamous murder of an eight-year-old boy in a private school on September 8, 2017, Gurugram Police had first arrested a bus conductor, and had even furnished proof supporting their charges. However, when the Central Bureau of Investigation took over the probe, the team did not find any evidence against the bus conductor. A special court later granted bail to the man on the grounds that the CBI had no evidence against him.

“Like the conductor, Jogender would not have been let off if the CBI had not investigated the case. My son would not have been out without the SIT,” Kavar Singh said.

But all’s not well in these homes. The 32 days of imprisonment was neither easy for the men, nor their families.

Singh’s father said, “They were treating him like a big criminal. My brain had stopped working as I was very worried. They (police) did not even allow us to meet him at the police station.”

Joginder Singh said he felt numb when he was in prison, but he’s relieved now and has already started planning to rebuild his future.

“I will take a break of one or two months and start applying for jobs again. But not in the same company,” he added quickly.