
"DCP ma'am (IPS officer Aslam Khan) had found out that we were struggling to live. She spoke to all of us and promised that she would transfer some amount to our account every month."
Sardar Maan Singh was driving his truck late at night. He had been working hard and had saved about Rs 80,000, just in time for his nephew’s wedding. He was headed home, and you can only imagine how excited he was to meet his wife, mother, and three children after months of being away. However, it was too late before he realised that he had taken a wrong turn somewhere and was on an unfamiliar road.
Maan Singh descended from the truck to ask for directions when two robbers tried to mug him. When he refused to bend to their wishes, they attacked Singh and left. All alone and with no means to treat his wounds, Maan Singh lost his life on the highway that night.
A few hundred kilometres away from this horrible incident, Maan Singh’s children, Baljeet Kaur, Jasmeet Kaur and Asmit Kaur, their mother Darshan Kaur and grandmother were sleeping soundly, excited to meet him and utterly oblivious of what had occurred.
The family lives in a small hut in a hamlet of 150 houses in Flora—about 2 kilometers from the Indo-Pak border.

The next day, their world came crashing down when the sad news about Maan Singh’s murder was conveyed to them. They had lost all hope when suddenly they got a call all the way from Delhi.
Speaking to Navbharat Times, Baljeet said, “We were worried about how we would continue with studies and manage school fees. Even a square meal seemed unaffordable to us. Then, one day, we got a phone call from Delhi. DCP ma’am (IPS officer Aslam Khan) had found out that we were struggling to live. She spoke to all of us and promised that she would transfer some amount to our account every month. She even told us that she would try to get governmental help for us.
It was a very emotional moment for us. We refused to take her help, but she didn’t listen. Our studies and our lives are going on only because of us.”

DCP Aslam Khan has been sending half of her monthly salary to the Singh family since that day. She even texts them every day and keeps herself updated on their progress. Every three days or so, the IPS officer calls the Singh family and talks to them like their family.
Even the family doesn’t know why this good Samaritan in the form of an IPS officer has been helping them, but they cannot be more grateful. “We haven’t even met each other,” Baljeet said, adding that “She calls us every other day and talks to us. She especially asks about my studies. We’ve discussed admitting my brother in a good school in Jammu.”
Baljeet adds that she too wants to be an IPS officer and work for the Delhi police. She has already started studying hard for this. Perhaps this is the kind of influence the kind DCP had on the poor children who lost their father in a robbery gone wrong.
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)