Covid-19 lockdown: Cleaner at Noida firm kills self

Shikha Salaria | TNN | Apr 28, 2020, 06:10 IST

Rajesh Kumar’s body was found hanging from an iron grille

NOIDA: A 45-year-old man who worked as a cleaner at an export company in Noida and had been asked not to go to work since the lockdown began on March 24 was found dead in his house in the early hours of Monday.
Rajesh Kumar’s body was discovered hanging from an iron grille in his room, which had been locked from inside. Rajesh lived with his wife, two children and a granddaughter in a rented house in Salarpur village.
The family said Rajesh had only received half the salary for March. Since he was the sole bread-winner, the family has appealed for help. The family said it had little money and rations left.
Rajesh also allegedly owed money to multiple lenders and late Sunday night, he disclosed this to his wife before going to sleep. “I asked him how much he owed but he did not share. I tried to console him by saying nobody could repay money during the lockdown,” his wife Anita said.
The next morning, Anita found his room locked from inside. “He was in the room opposite to the one where my children and I were sleeping. When I got up at around 6.30 am, I tried to open the door of the room but it was shut. When I peeped in through the window, I saw him hanging from the window grille with a cloth,” she said.
Their daughter Amrita said over the past few days, Rajesh had grown silent and was seen counting his savings multiple times. “We don’t know if someone had been pressuring him for money. I know he owed money to grocery shop owners and vegetable vendors,” she said.
Anita said that there isn’t enough food left in the house. “We never received any ration from anyone but today, the cops left a sack of rice. Apart from that, just 3kg of wheat is left. I used to work at nearby kothis but that also stopped with the lockdown. We hope the government helps us,” said Anita.
Station officer of Sector 49 police station Dharmendra Sharma said they had received information about the suicide and a team was sent to the spot. The body has been taken for a post mortem, he added.