Those who died along with Rajiv8230; forgotten

EIGHT<> years is a long time. The period is long enough for a person to relegate the events of May 21, 1991 to history. With the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case hurtling to a close, it is perhaps time for the courts, the investigation teams, the Government, the police and the media to draw the curtains on one of the most sensational political killings.

But not for the families of those who lost their loved ones in the blast. For the kin of the 15 policemen and onlookers who lost their lives that night, it has been one painful learning experience 8212; that reputation is dangerously thin and can be torn to shreds easily, that heroism is soon forgotten and promises by political partymen are empty words!

Months after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence to the four accused, some of the families still await the promised relief announced by the Central and State Government. And as the debate on whether the condemned8217; should be shown mercy rages on, they stand ignored, coming to terms both with their loss and with reality.

While police sources claim although they were hard put to give useful information to be in touch with the families of the nine police personnel, including a woman police constable Chandra, who provided security for the then Congress president, the whereabouts of most of the others remain unknown. At least three of the dead were known Congress party workers, yet the TNCC denies any links with them.

Tired of constant probing by investigative authorities and the consequent bad press, most of the families have shifted from their original homes. Enquiries reveal that many have settled down in their native places and a few have moved to other towns in search of jobs.

One of the deceased was a Congress supporter by the name of Saroja Devi. Her younger sister still lives in Sriperumbudur and cowers at the mention of media. Her mother has been admitted in a Chennai hospital and another sister is taking care of her there. She responds to all other questions, including a query of her name, with a bland 8220;I don8217;t know8221;.

8220;You don8217;t know what I have been through,8221; says S Kannan, who lost his wife Latha and daughter Kokila. Kokila, then eight years old, had written a poem on Rajiv Gandhi in Hindi which she wanted to read out at the venue. Latha had taken her to the meeting to get a word with Gandhi and was standing beside suicide bomber Dhanua.

In his house in Winturpet, Arakkonam, Kannan reminisces, 8220;The inquiry authorities made frequent trips to my house. I was taken to Malligai

the office of the Special Investigation Team in Chennai. There were rumours that my daughter had accompanied Dhanu to the shop in Chennai to buy the dress and that I had been paid Rs 75 lakh by the LTTE, which was reported by the Press.

8220;The TNCC promised to bear the education expenses of my son, but nothing came of it. I do not have any connections with them now.8221;

Today he lives alone. His son, Poovannan 19 lives with his grandmother. Poovannan dropped out of school after Std X and drives a rickshaw to earn his living.

Kannan, who works in the Food Corporation of India, has despatched letters to the President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Inspector of General of Police and the Collector. 8220;I hear the others 8212; the families of Saroja Devi and Santhani Begum 8212; have got the compensation. I have not received any.8221;

Living in a small house in Saidapet, V T Sundaramani, father of photographer Haribabu, whose photographs of the event led to the unravelling of the case, echoes the same. He was paid Rs 10,000 soon after the blast and another Rs 10,000 by foreign newspaper correspondents who took copies of the pictures from local newspapers. But no other relief has come his way.

8220;Maybe, we have not got anything because the CBI as named my son as one of the accused. However, I am proud that the photos taken by my son led to the solving of the case,8221; he says. He has also heard that the publications that printed Haribabu8217;s pictures are planning to pay for them. Sundaramani8217;s two daughters have been married and his last son Kalyankumar is now a police constable.

However, the families of police personnel have no complaints. The government has been paying them the monthly salary, an arrangement that will last till the date they would have retired. Some of them have sought jobs for the children.

8220;The government and the police department has been very sympathetic,8221; says Susan Edward, wife of Inspector Edward Joseph. Working in the Education Department, she was transferred when she was promoted headmistress. But she sought retention and it was granted, she says gratefully. Her eldest daughter wants to do her medicine, while the younger one is in twelfth standard. 8220;It is difficult, but life has to go on,8221; Susan sighs.

THEY MUST BE HANGED8217;

CHENNAI:8220;If they wanted to kill only Rajiv Gandhi, why did they take the lives of so many others as well?8221; says Kannan angrily. Any mention of remission of the death sentences to the accused makes him agitated. 8220;Political party leaders may say such things out of political expediency. But would you plead for mercy if it happened in your family?8221; he asks.

8220;The argument that Nalini is a woman and her child must not be orphaned does not hold water. What about my wife Latha, Saroja Devi, the woman police constable Chandra and Santhani Begum? Didn8217;t they have children? Chandra had a five-year-old child.8221;

Holding back her tears, Balasaraswathi, wife of Inspector U Rajaguru asks, 8220;How can they plead mercy for a woman who has brought so many families to the streets? Even if you change Nalini8217;s sentence to one of life, is the child going to live with her? Do you know what I have been through?8221;

Meenakshi Sundaramani, Haribabu8217;s mother, says that life has not been easy since the bombing. 8220;It was an end to all our dreams and hopes. But I am a woman after all8230;it is difficult to argue for the hanging of another woman.8221;

8220;Moreover, these condemned persons are only tools,8221; interjects Sundaramani. 8220;The man who masterminded it is gone and so also the actual perpetrators of the crime. Of what use will it be to kill these people?8221;

Susan Edward says, 8220;The desire for vengeance is now gone. In the last eight years, I have seen how my children have suffered because of the loss of one parent. Should we orphan another child?8221;