Blast victim146;s family faces stigma

While the family of Santosh, the 13-year-old who died in the Mehrauli blast on September 27, was given the compensation cheque of Rs five lakh, nine other injured victims were also given cheques of Rs 50,000 each on Friday.

While the family of Santosh, the 13-year-old who died in the Mehrauli blast on September 27, was given the compensation cheque of Rs five lakh, nine other injured victims were also given cheques of Rs 50,000 each on Friday.

Though the Delhi Police has categorically said that they were only conducting a regular enquiry of all victims of the Mehrauli blast on September 27, the family Allaudin Mukti Khan, the 23-year-old victim of the blast with abdominal injuries, alleges the police have subjected them to interrogation in the last few days.

8220;It is only since Thursday that the police have stopped interrogating our family, but our kids are now having a hard time in school. My brother8217;s seven-year-old son Hamid, who studies in Class I in a private school in Chhattarpur, was told by his teacher that his uncle Allaudin is a terrorist,8221; said Sahabuddin, the victim8217;s brother.

8220;He is an innocent child who doesn8217;t know what all this means, and so he came back and told this to his mother. But there are older children too in the family, who will probably commit suicide if something like this is said to them,8221; Sahabuddin said.

According to the family, the police have rounded up Allaudin as a suspect because he possessed a passport, two licences: one from Delhi and the commercial licence from Nagaland, and a PAN card. 8220;All these documents are with the police, which they haven8217;t returned to us till date,8221; rued Sahabuddin.

Meanwhile, the SDM South on Friday distributed compensation cheques to nine victims admitted at the AIIMS Trauma Centre. 8220;We have given compensation cheques to the Mehrauli blast victims today. The family of Santosh was given cheque of Rs five lakh, and nine others injured who are still admitted in the hospital, were given Rs 50,000 each. We will revise the compensation after verifying with his relatives,8221; said Sarvan Bhagria, SDM south.