Made to ‘clean bloodsoaked bed after husband’s murder’, MP woman speaks: ‘Realised what I went through only when I saw viral video’

Roshni and Shivraj fell in love and got married in 2016 despite objections from her family. “My family said he has no money; I said it is not important. I could not be with any other man,” she told The Indian Express.

The family lives in a mud and brick home and does not have much to their name. Roshni works at a stone mill, earning just about enough to sustain her children.

On Thursday evening, Shivraj, his brother Raghuraj (35), and their father Dharam Singh (65) were killed by a mob of 20-25 people armed with sticks, rods and sickles, police said. The mob, which included their relatives, killed them over a land dispute, police said, adding that the victims were harvesting paddy at the time.

Shivraj’s brother Dharam Singh (28) is critical. A police officer said four persons have been arrested and efforts were on to trace the rest.

Roshni and their two daughters watched as Shivraj collapsed in front of them. “We had grown some dhaan (paddy) on the disputed land… They turned up with axes and cut down my husband. We were supposed to celebrate Diwali together; the clothes he bought for his daughters are still unopened,” she said.

Roshni said she made frantic phone calls to the police but no one from the station reached on time. Hours later, she found herself at the Gadasarai Primary Health Center. “My two daughters kept asking for their father, but his face was so badly mangled that they could not recognise him. I sobbed next to his body… then, I was asked to clean a hospital bed where my brother-in-law (Raghuraj) had died. I did not think much back then. I only feared for my safety as all the men in our family were dead. Only the women are left,” she said.

“I later watched that video and can’t believe what I went through… I don’t remember much, everything is a blur. I went back home and saw that the video had gone viral,” she said.

As the video sparked outrage, the Dindori administration took action. On Saturday, the Chief Medical and Health Officer (Dindori) issued orders to transfer the attending doctor, Chandrashekhar Singh, and suspended two nurses, Rajkumari Markam and Chhoti Bai Thakur.

Singh, in his defence, claimed the hospital staff never asked the woman to clean the bed. “The men were shot at during a land dispute on Thursday and two of them were brought to our facility. The wife of the man who died asked us to let her wipe the blood from the bed with a cloth so she could use it as evidence of the extent of the bleeding. She was not asked to clean the bed. I have not received any complaint from the woman or her family,” he said.

Roshni claims otherwise. “I was asked by two women at the hospital to clean the blood. Since my husband’s death, all I have got is a packet of rice and some bananas from the local Collector. We want financial support from the government and security for my family,” she said.