LUCKNOW: Shattered by the death of his two-and-a-half-year-old son, who reportedly died after falling into a water-filled pothole on Wednesday, a police constable in Etawah district carried his body to the district senior superintendent of police’s (SSP) office alleging torture by not granting him the leave to take care of his ailing wife and two children.
He stated that he had applied for leave with the office of SP (city) Kapil Dev on January 7 but was not given any relief. Constable Sonu Chowdhary, posted in Quick Response Team (QRT) of Etawah police at Baidpura, said his son’s death was a result of him being at work most of his time.
According to sources, while Sonu was getting ready to leave for duty on Wednesday, his two sons - Shivendra, 5, and Golu, 2.5, sneaked out of the house and went to play at an adjacent plot. Sonu’s wife Kavita is bedridden after a recent abdominal surgery. After some time, while Shivendra returned, Golu did not come back home.
Sonu then went out to look for Golu and found his body floating in a pothole filled with sewage water in the adjacent plot. He rushed Golu to a nearby hospital where the doctors declared him dead upon arrival. Agitated Sonu then took his son’s lifeless body to the SSP office claiming that the seniors did not grant him leave even on genuine grounds of taking care of his two sons with a bed-ridden wife.
The officials consoled the constable and persuaded him to return to his house in Ekta Colony where he lives with his family in a two-room rented house. Other officials, who took Chowdhary to his house, accompanied him during his son's burial. SSP Etawah, Jai Prakash Singh said an inquiry has been ordered.