MMTC manager kills herself

NEW DELHI, May 3: Neelam SAPRA, a 44-year-old widow who worked as a senior manager at the Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation MMTC, se...

NEW DELHI, May 3: Neelam SAPRA, a 44-year-old widow who worked as a senior manager at the Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation MMTC, set herself afire on April 23. She was being allegedly harassed by her tenant over the past seven years, and the police had turned a deaf ear to her series of complaints. She died at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital last night.

In one of her complaints written to the Police Commissioner in 1991Sapra had stated that her tenant, Virendra Singh, had hired some hoodlums to threaten her as well as her two children and father-in-law.

Seven years and a pile of complaints later, soon after she returned from work to her Vivekandpur house on April 23, Sapra set herself afire. Her father-in-law Ramji Das Sapra, 83, and her teenaged children rushed her to RML hospital where she succumbed to her burns.

After the post-mortem was conducted, agitated relatives took her body to the Sarai Rohilla police station. They gheraoed the police station and refused to leave unless Virendra Singh was arrested.

When the police explained that they had to follow official procedure and Singh was anyway absconding at that time, the mob turned violent. The police retaliated by resorting to a lathi-charge.

They later accepted a complaint from Ramji Das Sapra, who claimed that Virendra Singh had recently threatened to kidnap his grandchildren and kill them. He pointed out that when his daughter-in-law was being treated at RML she had blamed Virendra Singh for driving her to suicide.

Sapra8217;s brother, A.K. Nanda, who also works at MMTC and is currently posted at Ludhiana, told Express Newsline: 8220;As it is, the police have done nothing for my sister all these years. Now that she is dead, her children are virtually helpless. And her father-in-law is too old to protect them8221;.

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Nanda also said that his sister had told him a few months ago that Virendra Singh was eyeing her property ever since her husband died. 8220;She was a young woman then, and had to face all kinds of harassment. Yet she put up a brave face all along because of her children. But how much can a person take?8221;The Sarai Rohilla police said that they were looking into the allegations against Virender Singh, including all the previous ones made against him.

They are also questioning Sapra8217;s relatives and her neighbours in this regard.