‘He was depressed over losing contact with son’

: More than his ongoing divorce process, what had left Subhash Gautam depressed was the distance that had cropped up between him and his seven-year-old son, his family believes.

Ever since his wife, Lata, had deserted him three years ago, the constable was allegedly not being allowed to speak to his son.

“Subhash loved his son dearly. He could live without his wife, but not without his son. Whenever he would talk to me, only his son would be on his mind,” recounted Subhash’s cousin, Rahul, who had grown up with him.

Devoid of any meeting with his boy, Subhash had over the recent months started visiting his son’s school in the hope of interacting with him.

“Once his wife got to know of it, she ensured that there was no interaction between the father and son. But he would still visit the school,” said Rahul.

“His efforts to interact with his son during the court proceedings, too, would bear no result as he was not allowed to speak a word with his child,” Rahul further said.

In-laws to blame?

The family of the deceased blamed Lata’s family, particularly her father Rajkumar, of creating friction between the couple. Rajkumar is a Sub-Inspector with the Delhi Police.

Subhash’s father, Ratan Singh, accused Rajkumar of forcing his daughter to extract large sums of money from her husband. “Subhash was paying for his son’s education and his wife’s expenses. But his father-in-law wanted Lata to extract lakhs of rupees from him,” alleged Ratan.

On the other hand, Lata had accused Subhash of harassing her for dowry, and had also got a case registered against him in connection with that.

Meanwhile, Subhash’s behaviour in the days preceding his death, too, suggested he was unable to fight any longer.

“Three days before his death, he took leave from work claiming that his grandmother had passed away. He had lost interest in his work, in his life,” said a relative.