The 11 lives Lost

My father was very knowledgeable when it came to court matters as he had worked in a court all his life. He knew that he would be able to get my son out of prison,he told me last night not to worry, said Mumtaz,sobbing.

The family says Wednesday was the final hearing of the case,and a verdict was expected. Whom would I call to help me in my troubles now that the blast has killed my father? It was because of me that he had come to the town. I wish he had refused to come to help me. I wish there was more security at the pass counter, Mumtaz said.

Veerpal Singh,50
Businessman
Wanted to boost his friends morale

2 Veerpal Singh had offered to accompany his friend Anand Prakash to a hearing in his sisters divorce case. It was Prakash who ended up taking Veerpal to hospital. Prakash said he had gone to the High Court to get an FIR under Section 498 A quashed. My sister had filed a case against cruelty and dowry. She filed for separation. We wanted to get the pass for entry. He said that it would boost my morale if he accompanied me to the court hearing. I was standing on the side while he was in the queue for getting a pass, said Prakash.

Veerpal also wanted to check up on an accident case in which his father was to get claims from another party. A father of two girls,Veerpal was the sole breadearner of his family.

When she first began the search in hospitals,his daughter,Kanchan,took consolation from the fact that Veerpals name was not on the list of injured. I thought my father was safe, she said. Then her uncle broke the news.

My mother is yet to be told. Someone has to break the news to her and I am certainly not the one, the 24-year-old said,her eyes welling up.

H D Joshi,68
Shoe factory owner,Naraina
Fighting for Naraina,till the end

3 H D Joshi,a resident of Naraina,had been going to the High Court for the last four years for a civil case filed against the Municipal Corporation of Delhi over the lack of civic works in his area. Joshi,the owner of a shoe factory,had filed the case on behalf of the Naraina Industries Association.

The case had been going on for four years. Many of our members would attend the hearings in the beginning,but slowly the numbers dwindled. Of late,only Joshi was going for the hearings, said Ramanand Gupta,Joshis friend and a petitioner. Joshi,he said,had been frequenting courts for the past 10 years,having filed several PIL cases against the DDA,Jal Board and NDMC.

Joshi had gone for the hearing alone with his driver. I spoke to him last at around 9.50 am. He said he was entering the court. He always stood in the senior citizens line, said Gupta.

After seeing news of the blast on TV,members of Joshis association rushed to RML Hospital. We alerted his wife and daughter after some time. But since hospital authorities told us he had been taken in for surgery,we told her he is still alive, said one of Joshis associates.

He said Joshis wife and daughter reached the hospital at around 3 pm. They were standing outside the OT with the rest of us,comparatively relaxed, said a relative of a man injured in the bombing. But barely 15 minutes later,a nurse came out of the emergency operation theatre and made the announcement that crushed all hope. Mother and daughter collapsed outside the OT,as friends rushed to console them.

Joshis wife was inconsolable. Our daughter was born here,and today she is here to see her fathers body, she said,weeping.

Mehtab Singh Dabas,57
Farmer,Gheora village
Reluctant litigant said it was bad karma

4 Mehtab Singh Dabas had agreed to file a case against his brother after a lot of cajoling. He had come for the first hearing on Wednesday,accompanied by his 18-year-old son Rohit. Dabass lawyer Sanjeev Benewal said he had last spoken to his client at around 10 am.

I was inside the court. My junior had gone to assist him with his entry pass. About 15 minutes later,I heard a deafening noise, Benewal said. Dabas was one of nine people who died on the spot.

Dabas,a farmer by profession,stayed in Gheora village. His brother had taken more than his share of their fathers land and started building a hotel. After a lot of deliberation over the last two years,Dabas had decided to go to court, said Balwan Singh Guliya,Dabass brother-in-law.

My father was standing just behind me. There was a deafening noise,and I saw bodies everywhere. My legs were badly injured,I couldnt stand up. I will never forget the sight of my fathers body when I found him among the pile of other bodies, Rohit said.

The grieving family cannot forget that they had forced a reluctant Dabas to file the case. He always said it would be bad karma. But we never anticipated it would turn out like this, said Rohit from his bed at RML Hospital.

Vinod Jaiswal,54
Resident of Sarai Rohilla
I cant break this news to his family

5 Vinod Jaiswal was fighting a case against his siblings over the distribution of ancestral property in Sarai Rohilla. Ironically,it was Jaiswals brothers,his opponents in court,who received his body at RML Hospital.

The case had been going on for five years. We would meet only in court; we had not spoken properly in years. What more can I say? a shaken Rajnish Jaiswal said. A friend of the family,Pratap Kumar,who said he had known Vinod for years,said,Vinodji always regretted the case. As the eldest of three brothers,he hated the way in which the property dispute had broken up the family.

Rajnish said Vinod had distributed sweets to the rest of the family in court after his son got into an engineering college last year. Today,Rajnish was called to identify his brothers body at RML Hospital. We have still not called his wife and children. I have not spoken to them in years despite living in the same colony. I cant be the one to give them this news, he said.

Inder Singh,82
Retired Central Secretariat employee
He had agreed to be a witness

6 Inder Singh was waiting in the senior citizens queue to get a pass to enter the court when the bomb exploded. The Geeta Colony resident had gone to court as a witness in a dispute involving an acquaintance. A relative,Manjeet Singh,said the case had been listed for hearing at 11 am.

His son,Harjeet,had gone to get some documents photocopied while he was waiting at the counter to get his entry pass8230; He was not a litigant but had agreed to be a witness in a dispute case. The case has been going on for years, said Manjeet.

An inconsolable Harjeet,who was also injured in the blast,struggled with words. I cannot believe I lost my father, he said. Harjeet has been admitted in the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

Darshan Lal,75
Retired mcd official
He silently watched his sons fight over property

7 Darshan Lal from Shakti Nagar Extension had gone to the court for a property dispute case among his four sons. He would always come to sit at the hearings,he told them that the case would not get them anywhere. But they did not listen, said Darshans grieving wife. Today,when he is dead,all three are crying here. He insisted on standing in the senior citizens line for his pass,and died, she wailed outside the hospital operation theatre.

Lal,a retired Municipal Corporation of Delhi official,had been the quiet observer in the fight among his sons. Two of the sons,who were injured in the blast,are admitted in RML Hospital.

We had filed a civil case in 2009 and we had hearings every two months or so. My father wouldnt miss a single hearing. He never commented on them,just came and sat here. He was the first to reach the court on Tuesday,and he was standing in line when the bomb went off. My brothers were walking towards the queue, said one of Lals sons.

Pawan Bansal,62
Working with a private company
Retd from SBI,was part of legal team in pvt firm

8 It was supposed to be just another day for Pawan Bansal,who was part of the legal team of Nathuram,a private company that he joined after retiring from the State Bank of India as an assistant general manager.

Bansal,who lived at Vidya Enclave in Gurgaons Sector 56,is survived by his wife,daughter and son. His body was one of the last to be identified on Wednesday. He was declared dead on arrival. Officials from his company,who arrived at the hospital to identify the body,later informed the family.

Amanpreet Singh,22
First Year Law Student
He loved visiting courts and watching his seniors

9 Although he was just a first year law student at IME,Sahibabad,Amanpreet Singh had already started working as an intern with a High Court lawyer,S P Yadav. On Wednesday,he skipped a friends birthday celebrations to attend court.

A resident of Jail Road,Amanpreets father Manmohan Singh is a property dealer. Being in the property business means facing various cases and litigation. Amanpreet loved visiting courts and watching his seniors fight cases, said his friend Monish.

I argued with him in the morning about not missing the birthday party of Rahul,one of our friends. He said he needed to go to court and would celebrate it on Friday. We were still planning to surprise him and pick him up, said Monish.

Nalini Agarwal,55
Retired Canara Bank manager
Walking ahead,she died; husband survived

10 Nalini Agarwal and her husband,Brijesh Agarwal,were both crossing the road outside the Delhi High Court after parking their car. She was walking a few metres ahead of him,separated by a motorcycle whizzing past,when the blast occurred. She was declared dead on arrival at the RML Hospital,while Brijesh is recuperating.

Residents of B Block in Vasant Vihar,Nalini retired as a manager with Canara Bank while Brijesh is a retired central government employee. Over the last few years,the couple frequented the court over a property dispute.

It was a property dispute case that they were caught in. They used to go quite regularly for the hearings. I dont know the details but they were quite worried about it, said the couples daughter-in-law.

They are registered with the Vasant Vihar Residents Welfare Association RWA,and frequented our local functions and initiatives. It is a complete shock for the entire colony. She was a very social person,always ready to help, said a Vasant Vihar RWA representative.

Neighbours said their son Neeraj had just got married about two months back. Nalini was so happy when he got married. It is so unfortunate that this tragedy struck the family so soon after their sons wedding, said another RWA representative.

My mother expired this morning,and my father is injured. We are in shock, said Neeraj.

Ashok Kumar Sharma,55
Resident of Palam Extension
Fighting a civil disputes case

11 Ashok Kumar Sharma was one of those declared dead on arrival at the RML Hospital,after being rushed there after the blast. A resident of Palam Extension in Dwarka,Sharma was at the High Court in connection with a civil disputes case.

He was declared brought dead since he sustained serious injuries. His body was identified in the afternoon by his relatives, said an official from the hospital.