Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The 24-hour long high-voltage drama of Goswami family from Raisen district concluded on Sunday evening as the family of five climbed down the water tank in citys Kasturba Nagar after assurance given by additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP) Rajesh Singh Bhadoriya.
The family head Ritesh, 47, had brought his wife and three children on a scooter from Gouharganj in Raisen and had climbed up the water tank on Saturday at 5 pm, fed up of a local who had allegedly occupied their land. They were threatening to jump down unless the police register FIR against the person, Dhananjay Singh Chauhan.
After much counselling and convincing by several officials from the police and administration, the family of five climbed down the tank at 4.30 pm on Sunday.
Ritesh and his family after they climbed down on ADCP Rajesh Singh Bhadoriya’s assurance. |
Ritesh, his wife Seema (40), two sons (6 and 15) and a daughter (13) spent the entire night atop the tank. While talking to Free Press they said, they had filed several complaints to the police against the person, but to no avail.
Seema said Dhananjay Chauhan occupied their plot, misbehaved and beat up her daughter. The police have not taken any action against any of our complaints. We will either come down with justice served or will jump down and the police can have our bodies.”
On Saturday night, the local town in charge Ashok Singh Parihar tried to convince the mother, Seema, to come down at least for the sake of her three children who were out under open sky in the middle of a cold and breezy night.
Parihar said, “We tried every method possible to convince them. They were determined not to come down at all. They spent entire night. We sent food and tea to them, but even that was difficult. They had refused to let us come up. We left the food on the stairs and one of their boys picked it up in the dark.”
“The area has no such light arrangement and we were afraid the kid might slip and fall,” he added.
The locals and police force remained at the site for all the night, convincing and counselling them. The police had made arrangements of safety net down below to ensure that even if the family jumped or fell due to imbalance, they would be safe. There was an ambulance, a dial 100 van, a fire brigade and an State Disaster Emergency Response Force (SDERF) van on the site, prepared for any casualty.
The next morning, as the crowd began to assemble once again, the family was sent some snacks and tea and asked to climb down. Now, the family had stopped taking calls.
They did not even come down to attend nature’s call. They had set up a makeshift home atop the tank. Finally, at around 3 pm, ADCP Bhadoria returned to the site and managed to convince them to come down.
Bhadoriya explained how he made it happen, “After I left the site late at night around 2 am, I went back to the control room and mediated talks between the couple and their relatives from their village. Seema’s brother helped me in convincing her and assuring her that proper action would be taken.”
Later, around 4.30 pm on Sunday, after having the food packets sent to them atop, the family climbed down. The Raisen police soon registered an FIR against the accused under the charges of misbehaving, beating up and encroachment.
Bhadoriya promised them that minister of medical education Vishwas Sarang would meet them as a representative of the chief minister and their issues would be redressed at the earliest.
They have now returned to Raisen.
