SAMBA, DEC 22: In December 1975, Major S.P. Sharma was hoping to get promoted to Lieutenant Colonel by Republic Day. So it came as more than a shock to his family and friends - not to mention the Major himself - that he was accused of being a spy according to those investigating the Samba case.Twenty-five years later, Sharma stands exonerated by the Delhi High Court. The cloud of stigma is gone and his wife Nirmal wants to smell the air in a cantonment, without the probing eyes and the stigma attached of being a ``traitor''. But the 25 years of living in disgrace have taken their toll. Normally a cool man, Sharma lost his temper when his son Manu had expressed his wish to join the Army.``The Army not only left him out in the cold, it took away his honour,'' says Manu. The Major used to repeatedly tell his family to arrange for a meeting with the President of India. ``He used to tell us: `After that, they can kill me if I'm found guilty','' his son recalls.The Major's nightmare began with seven months in military custody in Satwari. He has never been the same since, his family says. The thought of being perceived as a traitor by the people he had sworn to protect scarred him forever. He has never returned to Samba, the place he loved so much and even wanted to settle in. The family moved to Jammu instead. For two years after being released, Sharma lived in seclusion in the house of one of his distant relatives in Panjtirthi. Later he tried to start a factory but not even his relatives were ready to act as his guarantors. However, his friends helped out, extending him a loan and Sharma set up a nail factory in Gangyal, which he still runs.Despite all that he may have against the Army, family members say Sharma is still an Army officer at heart. ``He used to crib seeing uniformed men but could not kill the soldier within him. Till today, he is unable to take interest in his business,'' says his niece, Vandana.Sharma was just 14 when his parents died, leaving him to take care of his three younger brothers and a sister in Badigarh village. Shopkeepers there - in the interior of Samba - who recall Sharma growing up before their eyes, remember how he spent nights under a light bulb in a shop, trying to keep up with his studies. The young boy's hard work paid off and he qualified for a place in the National Defence Academy, passing out four years later to become an officer. That was till his life turned upside down, based on the statements by Sepoys Aya Singh and Swaran Das, who reportedly implicated Captain R.S. Rathaur and Captain A.K. Rana. Following their ``confessions'' - allegedly made after they were tortured - several Army officers, including Sharma, were arrested.``Go through the Samba Spy case and you will not find any clear evidence against Major Sharma,'' remarked Subash, a chemist in Samba.Sharma's family is counting the minutes till they can see him when he returns from a trip to Secunderabad. ``This (the judgement) will not return the years he lost but at least his smile will be restored,'' Vandana says with hope.
