‘How does it matter now who was responsible?’

‘‘The worst part was that we were accused of making bombs by the police. Then, more blasts occurred in Gandhinagar and near ISBT. That is when the police realised that it was not our fault. Life has moved on now, I do not hold any grudge against anybody now. My eldest son was 15 then and I had two daughters. Raising them without a mother was obviously difficult but they learnt to manage,’’ says Munshi Ram.

Son Ajay was barely five when the blast happened. ‘‘Today my kids are of that age. I do not even remember how it happened. How does it matter today who was responsible for them? We heard that five of the accused have even died, so what kind of justice do we look up for now,’’ says Ajay.

In another corner of Gandhinagar three members of a family had died in another transistor blast. ‘‘Shyamal Ghosh, a 15-year-old boy, saw a transistor and got it home to play. My father told me that there was a blast and Shyamal, his father Niranjan and his brother died on the spot. The rest of the family shifted soon after,’’ says Mitta, a vegetable seller who’s been in the area for thirty years now.