New Delhi: The wife of a Border Security Force jawan, whose video complaining about the quality of food at his J&K post went viral, alleged on Thursday that her husband had been arrested and was being mentally tortured.
“He managed to call up today using someone else’s phone. He told me that he is under arrest, being threatened and mentally tortured,” Constable Tej Bahadur Yadav’s wife told ANI.
“I was expecting him on January 31 but he did not come. He told me that his retirement was also cancelled within one hour after it was approved and that he was later arrested,” she added.
Waited for him on 31st but he didn’t come. He called up to say that he was asked to retire: Wife of Tej Bahadur Yadav #BSFConstableVideo pic.twitter.com/yRkBUiVxuc
— ANI (@ANI_news) February 2, 2017
The BSF has denied the allegation. “Tej Bahadur Yadav has not been arrested. Inquiry has found him guilty and disciplinary action against him has been recommended. But it has not been not approved yet,” the BSF said in a statement.
On January 8, Yadav, who was stationed along the border in Jammu and Kashmir, alleged that troops were served bad quality food at the camp and even had to go “empty stomach” at times.
In a Facebook video post he claimed that, “Governments change, but our situation doesn’t change… We only get a parantha and tea as breakfast and this is without any pickle or vegetables… we slog for 11 hours and at times we have to stand throughout the duty hours. For lunch, we get ‘dal’ (pulses) which only has ‘haldi’ (turmeric) and salt… with roti. This is the quality of the food we get… how can a jawan do his duty?”
The video went viral, following which DK Upadhayay, IG Jammu, held a press conference and said, “An inquiry is on to verify allegations. We (BSF) take ration from the Army so quality of material is very good.”
Earlier, Yadav’s wife spoke to CNN-News18 and said she will not allow her son to join the Army after seeing how her husband was treated.
“I won’t let my son join the forces after seeing how my husband was treated,” she said. “Initially we did think but not anymore. We used to think of sending him to army but not anymore. The son himself is refusing now,” she added.
(With agency inputs)