‘There’s no anger any more, only objectivity’

‘‘She (Shivani) is on TV channels all the time. When I want a break, I watch BBC,’’ Satish Kumar, Shivani’s father, said. ‘‘Now, there is complete objectivity. The emotions of revenge, of anger are not as strong as they used to be. But we feel good that the police seem to be getting closer to bringing the guilty to book.’’

Time hasn’t completely healed but it has helped the Bhatnagars talk about Shivani with greater fortitude. What still angers them is

what they call the distortion of facts about Shivani in the media. ‘‘She wasn’t a small-town girl, as is made out to be. She studied in Bokaro till her matriculation and then graduated from Lucknow University. She then moved to JNU in Delhi. How does that make her a small-town girl?’’ asked her father. ‘‘Recently a news-magazine got all the facts wrong about her, right from where she studied to my previous job,’’ he added. ‘‘And it’s not true that I was in the RSS. I retired as head of personnel from Hindustan Steel in Bokaro and I have never been associated with the RSS.’’

Inspired by her uncle, who was then a DIG in Lucknow, Shivani had taken the civil services examination. While she cleared the preliminary exams, she missed the grade in the Main exam by eight marks. Her next stop: the world of news, bylines and scoops. ‘‘I groomed her all along. She was very ambitious, she probably inherited it from me. She would take my advice. When I saw that she was interested in English, I advised her to start with the Classics, which she did,’’ Satish Kumar said.

Shivani’s success, then, greatly enthused her family. ‘‘When she got married, Advaniji came, so did Pramod Mahajan, Sushma Swaraj and so many prominent judges. We were happy with the circle she and Rakesh were moving in. We enjoyed her success, but didn’t know what it would lead to.’’

Not that the family was too comfortable with Shivani’s foray into investigative journalism. ‘‘I would always tell her that it’s risky. After a point, she stopped talking about her stories. We would read them in the newspaper the next day,’’ he said.

What has helped them mark the march of time over these past four years? ‘‘Her son, Tanmay. He’s taken after his mother, he’s so sharp,’’ Shivani’s sister, Sevanti, said. And, spirituality. ‘‘We always felt that it was some other power which would take revenge. Who are we before Him?,’’ said her father. The family has devoted one hour each in the morning and the evening to pujas and prayer. And, their son-in-law Rakesh Bhatnagar, who momentarily came under a cloud of suspicion. ‘‘From Day One itself, I knew Rakesh could not have been the murderer. Any intelligent man knows that the option of divorce is always there, why would he kill her?’’ her father told The Indian Express.