ONE YEAR AS WIFE’S HOSTAGE

The wife of a 30-year-old man in Gandhinagar tormented him for a year by allegedly locking him up in a small room, starving him and frequently hitting him. This disturbing case of incarceration came to light when the police rescued the man, Dalbir Singh Gill, from his rented house near InfoCity on Friday.

Cops are yet to find out why Dalbir’s wife, Rajvinder Kaur, subjected him to such cruelty. His mother, however, claims Rajvinder tortured him to coerce him into demanding a share of family wealth. Dalbir, who cannot move without a walking frame, used to play cricket in domestic leagues before a road mishap left him with head and leg injuries in 2002.

On Friday when the Gandhinagar mahila police — prodded by Dalbir’s mother — entered his home in Meghdhanush Society III near Info City to rescue him, they found him in a horrifying condition. He was alarmingly frail because of days of starvation; his skin was pale; he smelt terrible and had a thick beard. Worse, months of captivity had left him disoriented.

 The room in which he was allegedly held hostage was dark and unkempt. Cobwebs and termites could be seen all over the place, which had an unmistakable odour of fetid air. “The room and the house’s condition was terrible. There was hardly any food in the kitchen. Dalbir could hardly move and his clothes stank,” a sub-inspector with the Gandhinagar mahila police, A M Brahmbhatt, said.

fter being rescued, the 30-year-old — who claims to have once shared a room with Sachin Tendulkar in Pune before the little master was selected to play for India — was admitted to Gandhinagar Civil Hospital. Doctors who examined him told cops that he had sustained a lot of psychological damage.

Cops freed Dalbir, known to some as Bunty, from captivity after his mother, Sukhdayal Kaur, complained about Rajvinder.

‘Daughter-in-law from hell’

“My daughter-in-law had been harassing my son for quite sometime. I and other family members didn’t intervene because we didn’t want to intrude in their lives,” Sukhdayal said. “I approached cops after I learnt that my son had become a hostage in his own house.”

“She used to lock the house and leave. My son’s neighbours have told me that they have rarely seen windows and doors of his house open,” she claimed. “Rajvinder used to frequently fight with him and even used to hit him.”

Dalbir, she said, often complained about domestic abuse to his neighbours. “They (neighbours) had not seen my son for quite sometime and they were worried,” Sukhdayal said.

‘I was always nice to my husband’

Rajvinder, however, claims that she never ill-treated her husband. She blamed her mother-in-law for creating a rift between her and her man. “I always took proper care of my husband,” she said. “Allegations against me are false.”

No FIR in the case yet The Gandhinagar mahila police have not filed an FIR against the 30-year-old’s wife as they don’t have the powers to do so. They, however, will transfer the case to the sector 7 police, who will then initiate action against her.

Sub-inspector Brahmbhatt said that she had taken statements of both Dalbir and his wife. “He no longer wants to live with his wife. He wants to live with his mother,” she said.

2002 crash left Dalbir with multiple injuries
The incarceration victim married Rajvinder seven years ago. In 2002, his cricket career stopped on a dime following a collision between his motorcycle and a tanker. He sustained multiple brain and leg injuries. He, in fact, was in coma for four months. He was treated at hospitals in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and UK, and he underwent at least four surgeries.