GURUGRAM: Mukesh had on Thursday morning found a buyer for his cellphone. He got Rs 2,500 for it. He bought sugar, flour and rice, and a table fan so that his four kids could sleep more comfortably, with that money. The balance he handed over to his wife.

He then went inside his tin hutment, within a slum cluster at Saraswati Kunj behind DLF Phase 5, made a noose and hung himself from the ceiling. Mukesh’s wife Poonam, who was sitting under a neem tree near the house, found him dead when she walked in a while later.

The money Mukesh (in his early 30s) got from selling the phone was all he had. Neighbours pooled money for his last rites.

Mukesh’s troubles, according to his father-in-law Umesh Mukhiya, had begun two months ago when he stopped getting regular house painting jobs, which was his primary trade. So, he started working for daily wages, doing whatever job he could find, Umesh told TOI on Friday.

But those jobs dried up completely from March 24 when the nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus infection came into force. Mukesh found himself without an income. Over the last few weeks, the little savings he had ran out. He had, according to Umesh, also taken some loans and was under pressure to repay them.

“He had not had a proper job in the last couple of months. He was managing by doing odd jobs as a daily wager. When the lockdown happened, that also stopped and so did the money,” Umesh, who himself is recovering from a broken foot, said.

Police commissioner Mohammad Akil, however, said Umesh had in a statement shared with police claimed Mukesh was mentally unstable. “According to a family member of the deceased, he was into begging and had no regular source of income. He was mentally unstable and no one is responsible for his death,” Akil told TOI.

Senior IAS officer VS Kundu, chief of the

Metropolitan Development Authority, said it had been brought to his notice that Mukesh was upset. “We are trying to ascertain if our teams failed to provide sufficient food in the area. In that case, we need to fix the issue so that no one else is forced to take such a decision. I have asked the deputy commissioner to look into the matter,” Kundu said.

Umesh did not refer to Mukesh’s mental health during the interaction with this correspondent on Friday afternoon. Poonam (25) spoke little. “The neighbours gave us some food and we ate that,” she said when asked if the family had food. Poonam and Mukesh’s youngest child, Ravi Kishan, is just five months old. The three other kids are Kajal (2), Golu (4) and Soni (7).

Police were alerted about the suicide by a neighbour. Mukesh’s body was handed over to the family on Friday after an autopsy. “We received a call on Thursday that he had committed suicide as he was not able to feed his wife and four children,” said a police officer.

For his last rites on Friday, neighbours contributed Rs 5,000. “We did whatever little we could to help them,” said Zaura, who lives in the same slum cluster.

Asked if government or private organisations had been providing food in the area, the slum dwellers said cooked meals do reach the colony, but there are many mouths to feed and it’s not sufficient for everyone.

“As of now, we will just have to ask friends and family for help in order to survive,” Umesh said, pointing to his foot that has limited his own capacity to work.