Jharkhand: Rickshaw puller starves to death in Dhanbad; authorities say he died of illness
The death of a rickshaw puller at Jharia in Dhanbad has whipped up a fresh controversy after family members alleged that the man died of hunger while the district administration said it was due to a prolonged illness.
Rickshaw puller Baijnath Ravidas (45) died at his Tarabagan house in Jharia on Friday evening. After completing the last rites on Saturday, his wife Parwati Devi alleged that he died of hunger as he had not eaten for the past two days.
The family didn’t even have any money to buy medicines.
“The oven in my house was not ignited for the last two days and he (Baijnath) succumbed to hunger,” Parwati told reporters at a press conference today.
Baijnath left behind five children including three sons — Ravi (20), Suraj (14), Neeraj (10) — and two daughters Suman (16) and Sulekha (8).
After coming to know about the incident via social media, Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner A Dodde presented the family Rs 20,000 and assured to provide 50 kg of food grains immediately.
However, Dodde added that the rickshaw driver’s wife had given a statement saying he was ill for the last one month. “They told us where did they get medicines from but they didn’t go to …read more