JOIN US'All he wanted was private education for his children'
Closeness to her grandmother is what saved three-year-old Bhavna from a near certain death in Vikas Vihar in Dwarka, where her father allegedly killed his wife and two young daughters before opting for the noose himself.
Bhavna was seen on Monday afternoon gleefully jumping into her family members’arms outside the house even as they tried hard to hide their tears. She was the first on Monday morning to knock at the Kanojia family’s house, but she remained oblivious to the tragedy that had struck her family.
Though her family had shifted back to their own home three days ago from the temporary rented accommodation, she had continued to stay back with her grandmother.
“Her father RavinderKanojia wanted to take her along too, but she was reluctant to leave her grandmother’s arms,” said Ravinder’s nephew Lalit Kanojia. Less than a week ago, Bhavna had received admission into nursery in the same private school that Lalit attends.
Ravinder always wanted to educate his daughters in a private school, but the family’s finances allowed only government schools for his two older daughters, Yashika and Nandini, who studied in class two and three respectively.
With the family’s situation improving, the three brothers decided to expand their house and Ravinder decided to get all his three daughters admitted in a private school.
“Only this Saturday Yashika and Nandini had given entrance tests in my school,” said Lalit, adding that Ravinder took so much interest in their education that he wanted Nadini to repeat her class three in a private school as he felt she had not studied well. He said Yashika was very intelligent and Ravinder “did not want her talent to go waste in a government school”. Since the two girls had to prepare for their annual school exams, Ravinder wanted them to study in peace, for which he had them shifted back to their own house.
“He would always say he is very rich because he had three daughters. He would never deprive them of anything,” says Kunti, Ravinder’s neighbour.
The family and neighbours are unable to believe that Ravinder would have killed his daughters or wife. Though most evidences point to him murdering the trio, they give different theories to prove otherwise. “If Kishore could enter the house from outside, could not someone else have entered and killed the family?” says Mange Ram Yadav, a neighbour.
They were all unambiguous in claiming that the family was lovable and settled any rare differences rather peacefully.
“Not only did the three families live and run the drycleaning business together, the food for all the three families was always cooked together. Even when Ravinder’s family had shifted to their own house for the past three days, the food would arrive from the rented house,” said Ravinder’s brother-in-law Vikas.
It was an arranged marriage between Chanda and Ravinder that took place at their hometown in Gorakhpur some 10 years ago. “In the past 10 years that I have known her, this was the first time she did not wake up by 5 am,” says Kunti.
The neighbours are still trying to know why a man whom they considered humble and softspoken would eliminate his entire family.