Jaipur: A somber scene unfolds outside a house in Jharli village of Rajasthan’s Neem Ka Thana district, where a group of men sits in silence, their heads bowed and faces marked by grief.
Their discomfort is palpable amidst the mournful cries emanating from within the house. It is here that Lalit Kumar Beniwal, a 25-year-old village development officer (VDO) hailing from the Dalit Regar community, tragically took his own life on Sunday, February 18.
Family members of Lalit – an IIT graduate with aspirations to become an IAS officer – allege that he had been subjected to threats. Merely three days before his death, he had filed a first information report (FIR) alleging corruption against the sarpanch of Cheeplata village in Neem Ka Thana district, where he was stationed.
“The sarpanch and other officers kept putting pressure on Lalit to get work done. Manoj Gurjar, the sarpanch, his father and former sarpanch, Birbalram Gurjar, and the then Gram Sevak, Narendra Pratap Singh, were also harassing him a lot because he filed a report on embezzlement by Singh and Gurjar in the gram panchayat,” read the FIR lodged by Lalit’s family after his death.
His family members allege that ever since Lalit got his first posting in Cheeplata, after securing the government job of the village development officer in April 2023, he was stressed as he was being harassed by the sarpanch and local panchayat officials because of his honest nature.
“Due to his honest nature, Lalit never agreed to do anything illegal and would stop others from doing wrong. Ever since he had started working [as the village development officer], he was being harassed by the accused. Recently, it was found that the incumbent sarpanch and previous gram sevak in Cheeplata were allegedly involved in corruption to the tune of more than Rs 5 lakh,” they said.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.