Armyman ends life in Tihar Jail, talks of ‘reunion’ with dead wife in note

Depressed over being falsely implicated in a case of dowry harassment and abetment of suicide of his wife, Lance Naik Vinod Kumar lodged in Tihar Jail took his life on Wednesday morning inside the jail complex.

33-year-old Vinod was found hanging from the ceiling fan of a toilet of the Mulahiza ward of Jail number 3. When, like everyday, Vinod did not turn up for breakfast, a fellow inmate looking for him found him hanging from the ceiling fan. “The incident came to light on Wednesday morning when one of the jail inmates came looking for Kumar. When Kumar did not show up for breakfast, fellow inmates started searching for him and Vinod was found hanging from the ceiling fan at the toilet block right next to an under-renovation building,” said a senior police official. Prison authorities said during Vinod’s one-month stay in Tihar, he had not shown any signs of emotional disturbance and interacted with fellow inmates. However, the three-page suicide note acted as a mirror and reflected the pain that led Vinod to take this extreme step.

Vinod took the extreme step exactly a month after his wife had committed suicide. In the three-page suicide note accessed by the police team, he wrote about a “reunion” with his wife after death. “In the suicide note, he has mentioned that he loved his wife dearly and was inclined towards serving the nation,” said a senior police official.

A native of Rajouri district in J&K, Vinod had served in the Army for 14 years and his passion for the same was also reflected in the suicide note. However, his love for his wife, the pain of her absence and his getting falsely implicated in the case probably snowballed into this tragedy. It was also known from the jail authorities that the couple married against the will of their parents after being in a relationship for about four-five years. According to the police, when Kumar’s wife committed suicide, a case of dowry harassment and abetment to suicide under Sections 498 A (Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) and 306 (Abetment of suicide) was registered against him at the Delhi Cantt police station. Meanwhile, his body has been sent for post-mortem and the matter is being probed under Section 174 of the CrPC.