The families residing in Block A of Mohan Garden in Uttam Nagar here woke up to a terrible tragedy on Saturday when four charred bodies were recovered from a multi-storey building in their neighbourhood. But it was a tragedy that could well have been averted had the deceased Rajinder Saxena’s brother-in-law Jai Prakash been a little more inquisitive.
Forty-five-year-old factory owner Rajinder who, along with his wife Amita Singh and sons Tipu (9) and Swayam (5), ended his life in the intervening night of April 5 and 6, had in fact handed over one of the two suicide notes to his brother-in-law Jai Prakash a few hours before the incident, but Jai opened it only after the incident in the morning. “Jai was with Rajinder at his house till 10 p.m. on April 5. Rajinder even fetched chowmein and dhokla from a nearby sweets shop for Jai and the two had even played a game of ludo. But before Jai left, Rajinder gave him a letter and Rs.25,000 in cash saying these were to be delivered to some bank official. But Rajinder did not disclose the name of the official then and said that he would call him around 8 a.m. to give further details,” said Ompraskash, the eldest brother-in-law of Rajinder.
When Rajinder did not call Jai in the morning, he tried to contact him and Amita on their cell phones. “But both the mobile phones were found switched off. At this Jai grew suspicious and rushed to their Mohan Garden house carrying the cash and the letter. When he reached the spot, he noticed a huge crowd and the police outside the house and learnt about the tragedy. He immediately went for the letter in his pocket and his worst fear came true as it was a suicide note,” Omprakash added.
The police later found that Rajinder had also scribbled on the wall of the house with a sketch pen blaming his neighbour for taking the extreme step. “Had Jai been a little more inquisitive about the letter and opened it, perhaps the four lives could have been saved. But that was not to happen,” regretted Omprakash, who also spoke to Amita the night before the incident but did not find anything suspicious in her behaviour.
Rajinder, a native of Agra in Uttar Pradesh, had a love marriage with his former employee Amita in 2000 and had two sons. He had separated from his first wife and had two daughters from the relationship.
