Parshwanath Jain Tirth at Nagpura near Durg; murder victim Ravalmal Jain was managing trustee. (Express Photo: Dipankar Ghose)
The father was a successful figure, respected by his community: writer, social activist, and managing trustee of a temple. His son was struggling to step out of his shadow; trying his hand at various things and being rebuked for the choices he was making. It ended in murder.
Six hours into the new year, Ravalmal Jain and his wife Surjibai Jain, 72 and 67, had been shot dead in their home. Hours later, the police arrested the sole accused, Sandeep Jain, 42, their son.
For the close-knit Jain community in Durg, 40 km from Chhattisgarh capital Raipur, Ravalmal Jain was a pillar of society. He edited and published the Hindi newspaper Dainik Chhattisgarh for three decades, wrote countless essays and small books in Hindi, and won acclaim as a writer. He was the managing trustee at Parshwanath Jain Tirth at Nagpura near Durg, which gets visitors from across the country. One trustee told The Indian Express that while there are 40 trustees in the council including Sandeep Jain, Ravalmal Jain as managing trustee was the guiding force.
At Nagpura in Durg district, off the National Highway that leads from Raipur to Nagpur, on one side of the road stands a massive Jain temple stands while on the other stands Aarogyam, an Ayurveda and naturopathy college that Jain was central to opening. This dedication to naturopathy and Ayurveda found mention in CM Raman Singh’s condolence message.
At home, Jain is said to have had expected his son to emulate him. A family friend, who did not wish to be named, told The Indian Express, “Ravalmalji was a very determined man, proud of all his achievements. He wanted his son to be the same, but Sandeep wasn’t as driven as him. He was an easygoing person in front of everyone else, close to his mother, but quiet and timid when in front of his father. He had a stammer, which would not really come across when speaking in public, but would get worse when talking to his father. He tried his hand at different things, and had begun to gain acceptance as a poet, but had no real steady source of income and was largely dependent on his father. That led to frequent tension.”
Senior police officials said Sandeep tried his hand at several things apart from poetry for which he would travel to meetings, such as a family saree shop near their home, and even a nature-based fitness business, with little success.
“Investigations have revealed that his father suspected him of extramarital affairs because Sandeep had taken a one-room flat on rent in Durg despite the fact that he, his wife and son lived with Ravalmal Jain and his wife in the same house. He had even threatened to cut him off from property if he didn’t mend his ways. Sandeep was getting increasingly frustrated,” a senior police officer said.
The police said the trigger for the double murder was an argument on December 30. Said Dipanshu Kabra, IGP (Durg Range), “Ravalmal Jain would wake up at 5:30 and do puja, for which everyday someone was sent to get water from the Shivnath river nearby. His son suggested that instead of someone going to the river everyday, they just store the water from the river and then use it. This sparked a huge argument where many things were said. Ravalmal Jain got so enraged that at one point he struck his wife, who was protecting her son. This angered the son, and he began planning the murder.”
On January 1, as his father woke up, Sandeep Jain allegedly lay in wait. He had told the guard that was usually posted at the home, Rohit Deshmukh, to take the day off; his wife and son had left some days before for her parents’ home in Rajhara; there was nobody else in the house. According to police, Jain watched as his father exited his bedroom, conducted the puja and used the bathroom. With his mother sleeping, he latched the bedroom door from outside to ensure she wouldn’t come out, police said.
As his father came out of the bathroom, he allegedly shot him twice with a country-made pistol. The shots woke his mother and, investigators believe, thought someone had entered the house. “She began making calls to her son, who was not picking up because he had left his phone upstairs. She called the guard, who did not answer. She contacted another relative who lives 10 minutes away. But sensing the commotion coming from the room, and that his relatives would arrive quickly, Sandeep Jain panicked and opened the door of the bedroom from outside, and shot his mother thrice as well,” Kabra said.
Jain ran to open the door of the home from the inside, police said, calling it in an attempt to make it look like outsiders had committed the murders. He ran upstairs and allegedly threw the weapon behind the house and then pretended to be asleep. Senior police officials said that they found the pistol within hours of arriving at the scene, with Jain soon in custody.
During investigations, police said, they have found that while the immediate trigger may have been the argument two days before, the son had been harbouring thoughts of shooting his father for some months. The weapon was allegedly bought from a local dealer in Bhilai six months ago, at Rs 1.3 lakh.