After missing jawan is declared deserter, fortune deserts his family

In September 1992, Seva Ram was admitted to Command Hospital, Lucknow, since his left limbs were paralysed. While being transferred to the Military Hospital in Jalpaiguri, he went missing.

Taro Devi says she learnt that Sewa Ram had gone missing only when she was asked to vacate their quarters in Roorkee. “`Jao uske khaab lo (Go dream of him)’, Subedar Major Gyan sahib told me,” she says.

Since then, Taro Devi has been struggling to keep herself alive. The 38-year-old earns Rs 25 a day by collecting stones and pebbles and selling them to contractors in Bajalta area, Trikuta Hills. It’s barely enough to even feed herself, which is why she gifted her children away to the Ved Mandir Bal Niketan in Ambphalla, Jammu. “How can I feed my children and send them to school?” she asks.

Her eight year-old son Surinder remembers his mother a lot. “I want to go back to her, but it’s better here when I feel hungry,” he says.

His elder brother Sanjay says he will never wear the uniform. Taro Devi says Sanjay believes that men get lost after they join the Army. Sanjay lost crucial years of his education and rejoined school only recently. At 15, he is in Class VI. His brother, Vijay, is 12.

Captain Purushottam Singh (retd), caretaker of Bal Niketan, remarks, “This is injustice. Even if Seva Ram has gone into hiding, what is the fault of his wife and children? Why are they being made to suffer?”

Some years ago, Taro Devi filed a writ petition with help from ex-servicemen against the Army in the J&K High Court. She gave up the case midway after being unable to pay the lawyer’s fees. The case was eventually closed by Justice G.D. Sharma in October 1998.

There was one sympathiser for Seva Ram’s family though: Captain Krishna Murthy from Seva Ram’s unit mentioned in his report to the Army that Ram be declared dead so that his wife gets her monthly pension. According to a Defence Ministry order (12 (16)/86/D(Pension/Services), a soldier, even if missing, is declared dead if he is not found for seven years.

The Nagrota police had registered her complaint on her missing husband in October 1994. But on July 2, 1997, an Army court of inquiry declared Seva Ram a deserter. “How can they declare him a deserter more than four years after he went missing? This was done so that they do not have to give me pension,” claims Taro Devi. She now suspects that Seva Ram must have died in 1992 itself. “Either due to the negligence of the hospital or due to the people who were shifting him to Jalpaiguri,” she says.