Bihar: Father of ‘cycle girl’ suffers cardiac arrest at home, dies

DARBHANGA: Mohan Paswan, father of ‘cycle girl’ Jyoti Kumari, died on Monday due to a cardiac arrest. Jyoti had hit the headlines last year for bringing her father to Darbhanga from Gurugram on a bicycle, pedalling about 1,100km, during the Covid-induced lockdown.
The Darbhanga district administration has condoled the death of Mohan. Block development officer of Singhwara laid wreath on the mortal remains of Mohan and assured Jyoti of all support.
Jyoti’s father used to drive an e-rickshaw at Gurugram. He had, however, become unemployed after surrendering his rickshaw to its owner following the nationwide lockdown in April last year. He had earlier sustained an injury in his leg, following which his 16-year-old daughter Jyoti had gone to the national capital to take care of her father. Faced with acute shortage of money, Jyoti and her father had started their perilous journey from Delhi on May 10 after buying a bicycle for Rs 500. They had reached their village in Darbhanga on May 16.
Jyoti on Monday said his father was fine, but complained of uneasiness and vomited profusely in the morning. He passed away before being taken to hospital.
On January 25 this year, Jyoti was conferred with Pradhan Mantri Bal Puraskar by PM Narendra Modi. She had got Rs1 lakh, a citation letter and a medal. The award was conferred to Jyoti and 32 other children for their achievement in different fields.
Jyoti was also invited by the Cycling Federation of India for training, but she had refused the offer to continue her studies.