‘It’s a murder, we want CBI probe’

NEW DELHI: In the 1974 Bollywood superhit ‘Roti Kapada aur Makaan’ lyricist Santosh Anand wrote two songs. One of them ‘Main na bhuloonga’ fetched him Filmfare’s best lyricist award. But on Thursday, as he saw his son Sankalp and daughter-in law Naresh Nandini being consigned to flames at the Lodi Road crematorium, his state of mind might have been closer to the other song he wrote: Aur nahin bas aur nahin, gham ke pyale aur nahin.
Who would have thought that fate would deal such an unkind cut to the 75-year-old lyricist, who penned timeless favourites such as ‘Ek pyaar ka naghma hai’ (film: Shor, 1972) and was a regular in actor-director Manoj Kumar’s home productions in the 70s and 80s.
The lyricist has two daughters, both married. But from all accounts, Santosh was closest to Sankalp, who was born 10 years after his marriage and was the youngest of his three children. His five-year-old grand-daughter Riddhima has miraculously survived the alleged suicide pact between her parents. “She is still looking for her mother and crying out in her sleep. I don’t know how I will tell her about the incident,” the songwriter said, almost breaking down.
Sankalp (40), a former IPS officer-turned-lecturer at the Rohini-based National Institute of Criminology & Forensic Science, had allegedly committed suicide with his wife Naresh Nandini (36) at the Delhi-Agra railway tracks in the Kosikalan area of Mathura. Riddhima, who had suffered severe injuries on his head was also released from the hospital and is now at the Anand’s Sukhdev Vihar house.
Santosh, who had gone to Mathura to claim the bodies, said he did not believe the incident to be a case of suicide. “I believe that Sankalp and Nandini were pushed onto the tracks by someone. The matter needs to be probed. I want the CBI to conduct the investigations and look into the content of the suicide note which was found beside them,” he said.
Sankalp and Nandini had come to meet him on Tuesday afternoon, “But Sankalp did not say anything about being depressed. He behaved pretty normally,” he said. Yatharth Sharma, Sankalp’s cousin, had a similar view. “He never appeared to be depressed. In fact, the last time we met he told us that he was doing well with his program,” said Yatharth.
Nandini’s brother Kundan told TOI that he had spoken to her on phone last week during which she sounded worried about her husband’s career. “When I asked her she said that it was due to some issues which she would discuss once they meet,” he said.
The family came to know of the incident when Santosh called up his son on Wednesday morning. The phone was received by a cop who told them about the tragic incident.
Family members said that Sankalp had passed out of Delhi University in 2004 after which he cleared the civil services examination. He was posted at Kota as an assistant SP. Later he took up the job of a lecturer at the Institute of Criminology & Forensic Sciences. He had even co-produced a Bollywood movie two years ago with a family friend. He married Nandini seven years ago. She had quit her job in Patna and had moved in with her husband in Delhi. Riddhima was born in 2009.
Though the family members have not yet registered a complaint against anyone, the UP police has sent a team of experts to analyse the suicide note found on the spot. The family said they would wait till October 19 before registering a formal complaint.