The bodies of trader Mam Chand Singla and eight of his family were recovered from the Bhakra Canal this past week—almost three weeks after they disappeared. On the walls of their house were suicide messages, naming 20 farmers who owed them over Rs 2 crore. Manraj grewal travels to Pehowa to piece together the tragedy

THESE days all roads in Pehowa lead to Mam Chand Singla’s house. The prosperous town in Haryana’s Kurukshetra district, ringed by wealthy villages with a large NRI population, is struggling to unravel the mystery surrounding the death of this trader and his family of eight, including three grandchildren, all of whom were fished out from the Bhakra Canal early this week.
The house in an upscale neighbourhood with ‘‘Om’’ emblazoned on its façade stands quiet. Its thick walls hold within them the truth of what happened on the night of March 16 when the family was last seen alive. The next morning, a neighbour, who came to get water for his house under construction, spotted a note saying the family had decided to end their lives.
On the walls of the house were scribbled two suicide notes in Hindi saying the Singlas were being forced to take this step by 20 farmers and a trader who together owed them over Rs 2 crore. Some say the amount could even be Rs 5 crore.
It must have been a mind-boggling sum for the 56-year-old Mam Chand, who used to run a small kirana (grocery) store at Surmi village, commuting 20 km a day from his native Murtazapur village on a rickety moped till he was laid low by a heart attack last year.
But it couldn’t have been an insurmountable figure for his two sons Pradeep Kumar, alias Shilla, 32, and Amit Kumar, 28. The two brothers, who had started working as commission agents (arhtiyas) around a decade ago, were known for being very liberal with their money. Delhi-based businessman Rajesh Kumar, husband of their sister Shalini, 30, the only surviving member of the family, says he was often taken aback by their free hand. ‘‘They weren’t the kind to count every penny. It was easy come, easy go for them.’’
But their large heart only seemed to be complementing their business, which had gone from one shop at the grain market, the biggest in the Basmati-rich Kurukshetra district, to two. Three years ago, the brothers had also entered the rice-shelling business, and were now running two shellers. Two years ago, when they built a house in one of the better residential areas of the town, Pehowa knew they had arrived.
The house in the heart of the town is a far cry from their cramped family haveli in the narrow lanes of Murtazapur village, 8 km away, where they used to live as a joint family till a couple of years ago. Though divided into 10 caste-based mohallas, the entire village knows the Singla family, thanks to the chakki (grinder) started by Narata Ram, Mam Chand’s father.
Angrez Singh Bajwa, a tawny-eyed teacher in a private school, says that though Narata Ram also suffered heavy losses as a commission agent he managed to stay afloat due to the chakki that continues to be patronised by people from four villages.
With his father’s losses fresh in mind, Mam Chand, the eldest of four brothers, grew up to be a cautious businessman. “He was a very hard-working and good-natured man,’’ remembers Angrez, who used to daily hitch a ride on Chand’s moped. Very unassuming, he even dressed up like a peasant with a white kurta payjama topped by a white wrap on the head. His sons, however, had more urbanised sartorial tastes. While Pradeep had a weakness for safari suits, Amit preferred trousers and shirts.
And it was Pradeep’s suit that helped his friends identify his body and later that of Amit in the canal on March 31 even though the police refused to believe them. Later, it was due to the efforts of a dozen Rajput divers from the village that the police managed to fish out the second-hand Maruti car bought a month ago with the rest of the family, including Mam Chand, his wife, two daughters-in-law, one of them eight-month pregnant, and three young grand-daughters, the eldest only seven.

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