Tuesday, 8.30 am: 52-year-old Zehnabibi Sarfarazkhan Pathan was waiting at Sabarmati Central Jail for permission to meet her son Samirkhan Pathan, oblivious to the fact that her son’s body was lying at the Civil Hospital morgue that very moment.This was the third time Zehnabibi had gone to meet her son — arrested in the kill-Modi conspiracy case — after he’d been transferred to judicial custody on October 16.On the two previous occasions, she was denied permission as she did not possess documents to prove her parenthood. And just as she was granted permission, a relative screamed that her husband was calling her urgently.‘‘I went to my husband and asked him the reason for calling me back. And he said that Pathan was being brought home. I told him it was not possible as he was in jail. But he insisted and I even believed it. On reaching home, I was told that Samir had been killed while trying to flee from police custody,’’ says Zehnabibi, fighting back tears.‘‘My son doesn’t deserve this death. I admit he made some mistakes for which even I never forgave him. But this is too harsh a punishment for stealing vehicles and killing a police constable,’’ she says.About the conspiracy to kill Modi, she says, ‘‘How was he going to kill the CM when there was no weapon found on him? With his bare hands? And if he was a terrorist, would we be living in a one-room house with some utensils and two pairs of clothes.’’A look at the single-room house in Jamalpur confirms their spartan existence. In one corner of the house, Pathan’s father Sarfarazkhan Pathan (56) sits, trying to come to terms with his son’s death.‘‘He was the family’s only hope. My other son was crippled in a serious road accident three years ago and I have not gone to work for about an year,’’ says Sarfarazkhan, an AMTS driver.Sarfarazkhan says he couldn’t go to work due to ill health. ‘‘And then the riots broke out and as my bus passes through a communally-sensitive area, I continued to stay away from work,’’ he adds.Pathan’s parents and residents of the locality are upset that even though the news was aired on TV in the morning, the police did not officially inform them till afternoon.‘‘It was only around 11.30 am that a police jeep came and gave us a small chit which said Samir had been killed in an encounter and his body was at Civil Hospital. In all that time since his death, the police did not even care to inform us even verbally,’’ says Sarfarazkhan.‘‘If the police had told us about his death, I would not have gone to Sabarmati jail with the hope of seeing my son after six long years,’’ says Zehnabibi. Pathan left home six years ago.
