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Before ending his life, Salman recorded three short videos and sent them to his sister Gulista. In these videos, he was holding his wife responsible for the tragedy.
Salman jumped to death in the Yamuna with his four children. (Image: News18)
When 38-year-old Salman from Uttar Pradesh’s Kairana learned that his wife had once again eloped with her lover — the fifth time in seven months — something inside him finally gave way. The man who had spent months silently enduring betrayal, humiliation, and heartbreak gathered his four young children – Mahak (12), Shifa (5), Ayan (3), and eight-month-old Inaysha – walked to the Yamuna Bridge on October 3. Minutes later, he threw two of them into the river, clutched the other two in his arms, and jumped.
Before ending his life, Salman recorded three short videos and sent them to his sister Gulista on WhatsApp. In these videos, he was holding his wife, Khushnuma alias Khushi, responsible for the tragedy. “Mahak beta, we are all going to die. Your mother is responsible for our death. For seven months she has ruined my life,” he said in one of the clips. In another, his voice cracked as he said, “This woman has made my day and night unbearable. The law can’t help me. I have put five lives at risk so that no one else should do what I am doing.”
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The videos surfaced the next morning when Gulista opened her phone. By then, Salman and his children had vanished into the swirling waters of the Yamuna.
A Bridge Between Two States, and a Family’s End
The Yamuna Bridge where Salman jumped, lies on the border of Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district and Haryana’s Panipat. The old bridge, closed to vehicular movement due to its weak structure, has become a grim symbol of despair. Barricades had been placed at both ends, but Salman crossed them easily, reaching the spot where the side wall had collapsed.
Below the bridge, dozens of people now gather daily. Among them is Salman’s aged father, Shafiq, who sits silently under a tree. “He hasn’t spoken since that day,” said a relative, adding that Shafiq, a heart patient, had to be stopped from joining the search.
As of October 6, only Mahak’s body has been recovered — found nearly 12 kilometre downstream. The search for the remaining four continues. “Normally, bodies surface within 48 to 72 hours,” a police officer at the site said. “Given the river’s depth and current, we expect to find them soon.”
A Marriage Consumed by Distrust
Salman had married Khushnuma 14 years ago. Relatives describe him as a soft-spoken man devoted to his children. According to Khushnuma’s relative, Ahsan Ansari, her affair began with a man from Muzaffarnagar’s Jowla village. “His sister lives in Kairana, right across from Salman’s rented house. That’s how they met,” Ansari said. “The first time she ran away with him was about seven months ago. She returned after a week, apologised, and promised to end it. But she did it again — five times in total.”
Relatives repeatedly tried to counsel her. “We begged her to stop,” Ahsan said. “But she said she didn’t want to live with Salman any more.”
Even then, Salman refused to leave her. “We told him to divorce her and remarry,” said his uncle, Jameel. “He said, ‘I can die, but I can’t leave her.’ We couldn’t understand why he kept forgiving her after everything.”
For Salman, it was about his children. “He often said, ‘If I marry again, will another woman love my four kids like their mother’,” Jameel recalled. “That’s why he tolerated everything — the humiliation, the gossip, the loneliness.”
The Final Hours
On October 3, while police were busy overseeing Durga idol immersions along the Yamuna, Salman reached the old bridge with his children. Just 100 metre away is a police outpost. The sub-inspector on duty later admitted off-camera, “We were there the whole day. We didn’t see him. No one told us anything. It was only when the family came with the videos the next morning that we realised what had happened.”
The videos show a man visibly exhausted by emotional pain. “This is my last video,” he says in the third clip. “I’m asking my father to forgive me if I have made a mistake. I love him very much.”
The Silence
Relatives believe the tragedy could have been prevented if Salman had opened up about his wife’s affair. “I asked him two months ago if there was any problem,” Jameel said. “He denied everything. Maybe he thought she would change. If he had told us, we would have helped.”
For seven months, Salman bore the betrayal alone — never complaining to his family or the police. “He was afraid of the gossip, of the shame,” said a neighbour. “He wanted to protect his children from taunts.”
His silence, however, became his undoing. “He thought the world wouldn’t understand,” Jameel said, his voice breaking. “He didn’t want anyone to insult his wife, even after what she did.”
A Mirror to Small-Town Despair
Mental health experts say Salman’s case reflects a growing but overlooked crisis — emotional breakdowns triggered by relationship turmoil and the absence of support systems in small towns. “Men often suffer in silence,” said a senior psychiatrist from Meerut. “They’re told to endure pain, not express it. Without counseling or community support, despair can turn deadly.”
At Salman’s home in Khelkalan locality, the courtyard stands eerily quiet. The laughter of children has been replaced by the wails of mourners. Only two remain — Salman’s elderly father and his youngest son from a previous marriage.
“The entire family is gone,” said a neighbour. “He kept forgiving his wife, hoping love would fix everything. But in the end, love destroyed him.”
October 06, 2025, 14:34 IST
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