Family says Grewal was a strong man

BAMLA (BHIWANI): The family of 70-year-old retired subedar Ram Kishan Grewal is finding it hard to believe that a “strong man like him” committed suicide.

Ram Kishan’s wife Kitabo Devi, 60, wants to know what prompted her husband to take the drastic step.

Devi’s health deteriorated after hearing about her husband’s death. She only wants to know what prompted her husband to take the drastic step.

“He was very passionate about ‘one rank, one pension’ (OROP). He had been travelling all over to attend every small and bigmeeting forthepastone-anda-half years. For us, it was quite normal to hear on Monday when he said he’s going to attend a dharna in Delhi. He had said he would return the next day, but I received a call from my daughter in Delhi that her father is in hospital,” Devi said.

“We request the government to at least now implement OROP for which my husband had been fighting. He should be declared a martyr and be cremated with state honours,” she said.

Subedar Ram Kishan Grewal served in the Territorial Army for six years before being inducted in Defence Security Corps.

In an audio clip that surfaced on Wednesday, the ex-serviceman is purportedly heard telling his son, Pradeep, on phone that he has consumed poison because of injustice with jawans. “I’m a man of principles. I can’t see this injustice happening with our jawans,” he is heard saying.

His other family members back home, however, refused any knowledge of the phone call.

“He was a very emotional person. He considered everyone’s problems as his own... He must have got overwhelmed by his passion to help others by sacrificing his life,” Ram Kishan’s friend and fellow ex-serviceman, Subedar Umer Singh, said.

Ram Kishan is survived by his wife, two daughters and five sons. His eldest son Dilawar is a head constable with the Haryana Police. The other four are unemployed, despite three of them holding MA degrees.

“One can imagine his desperate fight for OROP when he has such a large family to support,” another friend said.

While four of his sons have gone to Delhi to bring back his body, the fifth one, Kulwant, is home to support his mother. “We don’t want any politics over his death… The government should support us instead of making this time more difficult for my family,” Kulwant said.