Woman killed because she worked, Rajputs raise fund for her children
villagers in Rajasthan’s Alwar district are collecting money to support the education of two children of a community woman who was murdered by her relative because she worked in a factory.
Usha Devi, 32, of Shahjahanpur village in Behror tehsil was hacked to death with a sword on March 15 by her father-in-law’s cousin, Mamraj Singh, 62, because he didn’t want a woman from the family to take up a job, police said.
Usha’s husband, Mukesh Chauhan, is a construction worker. His earning is not sufficient to raise a family of four, so Usha decided to work in the Shahjahanpur industrial area around three years ago – defying the family belief – to educate her children. She earned ₹6,500 a month.
Singh, arrested a day after the killing, told police that a woman doing a job was against the family dignity. Behror deputy superintendent of police Janesh Tanwar said Singh confessed to his crime.
“He (Singh) said he decided to kill her six months ago when the two had arguments over her working. He claimed Usha had humiliated him that day,” Tanwar said.
Singh is in jail, and police are preparing a charge sheet against him.
Singh often accosted Usha Devi when she was going to work, and asked her to quit the job. But Usha wanted to earn to give her two children – Tanuja (15) and Dheeraj (10) – education and get the family out of penury.
Tanuja is a Class 9 student at Gautam Public School at Shahjahanpur and Dheeraj studies in Class 5. Tanuja has her exams in April, and the family is worried about her preparations.
“She’s disturbed,” said her uncle Mohan. “We are counselling her to prepare for the exams. She needs to understand that doing well in the exam will be a true tribute to her mother.”
After Usha Devi’s murder, Rajputs in Shahjahanpur and neighbouring villages — Gugalkota, Chaubara, Mirzapur and Neemrana — are collecting money to create a corpus for Tanuja and Dheeraj.
“We want to raise money so that their life is not affected by their mother’s death,” said Sunil Chauhan of Gugalkota village.
Shahjahanpur police station SHO (station house officer) Surendra Malik said he would request industrial units in the village to contribute to the corpus. “The children’s grandmother will look after them and the money from the collection will help them continue their education,” the SHO said.
During investigation, police found that Mamraj Singh was a bachelor and idled away his time.