New Delhi: “I told him to come back to the village” were the first few words of 70-year-old Nathu Devi as she stepped out of Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital’s mortuary on Saturday after identifying her son’s body.
Prem Singh went missing on February 25 from the Brij Puri area of northeast Delhi where the riots broke out.
A wailing Nathu Devi said: “I always told him to come back and live with me. There is nothing in big cities. But he never agreed. Now they killed my son. I still can’t believe he is gone.”
On around 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Singh ventured out to buy milk for his toddler. When he didn’t return for a some time, his family started searching for him.
A neighbour, who accompanied Devi, her two daughters and daughter-in-law to the hospital, said, “Some neighbours suggested to look for him in the Bhajanpura area. But we couldn’t get any trace of him. We filed an FIR at the Dayalpur police station and gave a missing add in the newspaper. The police officer asked us to check at the GTB Hospital. We found him in the mortuary.”
Prem Singh, 27, has left behind three daughters and a 7-month pregnant wife. “All nearby shops were closed. I told him not to go far, kids can do without milk for a day. He went out, never to return,” said Singh’s sister.
Singh came to Delhi from Kasganj in UP in search of a better life. He pulled rickshaw for living.
His wife Sunita, 24, told IANS, “I don’t know how I will look after the three children and one who is yet to born. He was the only breadwinner. The eldest is 14-yaer-old, and the other two 5 and 2 years old.”
As many as 41 people died and 200 others were injured in the Delhi riots that shook the northeast Delhi on February 23.
Three corpses are yet to be identified at the GTB Hospital’s morgue.
