Opening the lock

THE sessions court verdict in 2000 left Samant8217;s family even more dejected. The court convicted Vijay Thopte, Ganpat Bamne and Arun Londhe to life imprisonment but did not get to the 8216;8216;real plotters8217;8217;.

Bhushan Samant, the second son of the trade union leader, says that now with the arrest of the two hit men, there is hope that the name of the real conspirators will come out.

The Mumbai police, still dusting the eight-year-old files, say the hit men would be brought to the city by Monday, April 25. Deputy Commissioner of Police DCP, Crime Dhananjay Kamlakar, now in-charge of the case says, 8216;8216;We want to establish the motive behind the murder.8217;8217;

But that8217;s not going to be easy. Samant8217;s elder brother, Dada Samant, 76, president of Kamgar Aghadi, the union floated by Datta Samant, is cautious. After all, he has seen the old case crumble in 2000. There were no eye witnesses, even Datta Samant8217;s driver Bhimrao Kamble denied seeing the assailants and other witnesses turned hostile.

THE police investigation had called the murder a result of inter-union rivalry at Premier Automobile-Peugot PAL factories in Kurla and Dombivili, where Samant had led a prolonged but unsuccessful lockout.

The two accused, Ashok Satardekar, a small-time Sena leader and PAL workman involved in the internal union and Ramesh Patil, a builder based in Dombivili also used to supply spare parts to the PAL-Peugot factory charged with conspiracy, were acquitted.

Patil allegedly lost money, Rs 2 lakh a day in his spare parts business, while Samant led the strike at PAL. A five-page letter dated February 8, 1997, addressed to then chief minister Manohar Joshi by Dada Samant answers some questions. The letter points a finger at Premier Automobile PAL management8212; the strained relations between Samant and the young owner Maitreye Doshi, the muscle hired by the internal union, and threats recieved by workers.

The trend of hiring gangs to ease out worker-related problems was not new in Mumbai. Neera Adarkar, architect and author of One Hundred years, One hundred voices says , 8216;8216;Since 1982, the time of Dr Samant8217;s marathon textile strike, the murky trend of hiring gangs, paying them to break union strength had taken off.8217;8217;

Three years prior to Samant8217;s murder, Sunit Khatau, owner of Khatau mills was shot 11 times by assailants allegedly of the Amar Naik gang. Datta Ishwalkar, general secretary of the Girni Kamgar Sangharash Samiti recalls another murder, of Vallabhai Thakkar, owner of Raghuvanshi Mills by supari killers three months after Samant8217;s murder.

BUT, says, Ishwalkar those murders were different. In both cases the reason was clear. The owners had failed to pay a requisite amount to the goons or got killed in the inter-gang rivalry. Samant8217;s murder left everyone stumped. The Samant family8217;s attempt to turn the case over to the CBI failed twice and so did the appeal on re-investigating the case.

According to advocate Majeed Memon, who was appointed by the state as special prosecutor for the appeal at the Bombay High Court: there was substance in the apprehension that the case was not investigated properly.

The convicted three had confessed to pulling the trigger for Rs 10,000 each but gave no leads about who gave them the money. Will history repeat itself?