Lucknow’s Alambagh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee helps woman carry brother’s body to Kashi

Alok Pandey, 22, a Dubai resident, committed suicide when he was refused wages of the last six months by his employer. His body landed at the Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow, on Wednesday morning.

What followed was nothing short of harrowing for the already grieving family. Namrata Pandey, 20, Pandey’s younger sister, came all the way from village Chandanpur in Varanasi to receive the body. After completing all the formalities, she pleaded with the authorities to arrange for a vehicle to carry the body back to Chandanpur, but they refused to help.

She dialled numbers of ambulance providers but they demanded exorbitant amounts.

“I only had only Rs 1000 with her but the ambulance was demanding more than Rs 15,000,” said Namrata.

She kept waiting from 11 am to 4 pm at the airport with the body of her brother, for help from some quarter but none was forthcoming.

Meanwhile, her cousin, Rani, living in Uttamnagar, Gujarat got the number of Nirmal Singh, president, Alambagh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, from a social media site. Rani rang Singh up for help.

Singh recounted, “I called the woman (Namrata) immediately and within half-an-hour our ambulance with five volunteers from Gurudwara reached the airport. I told her she is the daughter of this country and the sewadars coming to help her were her brothers. The body and the woman were taken to their residence by an ambulance and reached by 2 am. I have promised her more help as she has only a widowed mother to take care of her. We wanted to transfer some funds to her account but the girl refused any monetary help despite living in poverty.”

However, the Alambagh Gurdwara Committee has contacted the gurudwara committee in Varanasi to provide all help to the Pandey family.

Singh said, “The gurudwara will ensure that the girl doesn’t suffer. The girl is a graduate and we will try to arrange a job for her too.”