Now a murder mystery rocks the Sashastra Seema Bal

He sounded stressed and worried of late. And when Sashastra Seema Bal Sub Inspector Dhandev Kumar (52) called up his son on January 30, he did not use his own cell phone but one that belonged to a colleague. He was on a train and travelling from somewhere on the Indo-Nepal border in Bihar to the Battalion headquarters in Chhattisgarh.

“From now onwards, I’ll be available on this number. I’ve been trapped and don’t know what to do.” Ravindra Chauhan, speaking from his home in Himachal Pradesh, recalls what his father said on the phone in a low voice. Chauhan wondered what would have caused his father such distress, but his father was in a hurry to end the conversation.

The next call received by Chauhan was from an SSB man who claimed to have been on the train. Dhandev, he informed, had jumped off the train and disappeared. Another call from one of the men in the group claimed that Dhandev was not in a ‘proper frame of mind’. A third call the next day informed the family that Dhandev Kumar had committed suicide.

An FIR lodged at a police station in Ghazipur district, Uttar Pradesh reads : “3 sub-inspectors and four head constables were accompanying me in Bhilai-Godiya Express as we were expected to join a court of inquiry. The train was moving at 10 km per hour speed. Dhandev, who was talking to someone over the phone while standing near the open doorway, jumped off the running train and disappeared. It was 7:15 in the evening. Though we pulled the chain, the train stopped only after 50 km. Thereafter we started searching for him...”

The body of the SI was found hanging from a tree the next morning, between 9.30 and 10 am on January 31, informs Vijay Yadav, Sarpanch of Dev Kali panchayat. There was dense fog in the morning, he told National Herald, which is why the body was not spotted earlier. The spot where the body was found, informed the Sarpanch, was 2 km from Tarav station and 7 km from Nandganj.

The SHO of Nandganj PS Sushil Yadav told National Herald that the post-mortem report had declared that Dhandev had died “due to trauma as a result of ante-mortem (before death) head injury.” The report mentions a wound on the back of the head and injury marks on the neck and other body parts.

“After the post-mortem report, we’ve converted this case into 302 (IPC section involving murder case). We’ve also asked the seven SSB personnel who were travelling to Bhilai along with Dhandev in connection with an official inquiry, to join the police investigation for questioning,” informed the SHO.

Dhandev’s son all along suspected foul play. And in his conversation with this correspondent from his village in Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh, he said the family would like an independent inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation. While either the Centre or the judiciary can refer the case to the CBI, there are disquieting questions for which there are seemingly no answer.

Questions on the death of SI Dhandev Kumar

• Why did Inspector Pradeep Kumar Gupta, who filed the FIR, give an invalid phone number to the UP Police?
• Which train were they travelling in? National Herald is unable to find the “Bhilai-Godiya Express" mentioned in the FIR, on the Indian Railways website
• What happened to Dhandev Kumar’s own cell phone and why did he have to call his son from someone else’s phone?
• Is the murder connected to the court of inquiry to join which the SSB team was travelling to Bhilai?
• What is the nature of the ‘trap’ that Dhandev Kumar indicated to his son ?
• According to the FIR Dhandev jumped off the train at 7.30 pm and others got off only 50 km later. And the train was moving at just 10 km per hour. Wasn’t there any station where the train was to stop before 50 km?
• If the Inspector is right about the train’s speed and stoppage, then he would have got down from the train at 11.30 pm. How could he have been filing the FIR at 11.30 pm then?
• How did the Inspector stumble upon the Saidpur Police Station to lodge the FIR? Shouldn’t the FIR have been lodged with the Government Railway Police? Also, Dhandev allegedly jumped off the train near Nandganj and the body was found under jurisdiction of Nandganj Police Station, so why was the complaint filed in Saidpur?

Even more suspiciously, Chauhan confided to National Herald, all other phone numbers the family had of people in his father’s Battalion had suddenly gone “out of reach”.