Their only demand is justice

Jaipur: Fifteen years have passed but Aneesa Begam, mother of 10-year-old Ilma, still believes that her daughter who had gone to buy curd from a sweet shop near Chandpole Hanuman temple will return.
Like her, several families who lost their near and dear ones in Jaipur blasts on May 13, 2008 are yet to overcome grief. Most of the victims’ family members still cry when they recall the horrifying incident, the day when they lost their son, daughter or husband. Their only demand – Justice, which has eluded them for so many years.
TOI visited a few families to get a feel what all these families went through over the years. They might have moved on in life, but the pain, the hollowness and the anger still lives.
“My husband had gone to Chandpole Hanuman temple to offer prayers and never returned. My relatives must had known about the blasts, but they did not share anything with me on that night. I came to know about it when the body of my husband Radhey Shyam Yadav arrived home,” said Yadav’s widow Chandrakanata while talking to TOI at her Balanand Ji Ka Mandir home near Chanpole Bazaar.
Yadav was a bus conductor with Rajasthan State Roadways Corporation.
“After his death, life became miserable as my children were of the age where they needed their father most. My elder daughter Nisha was 19 years old, Neha was 17, Poonam 13 and my son Giriraj was 15. My daughters took tuitions. The initial years were very bad. By god’s grace, two of my daughters are now married and my son got a job in RSRTC on compassionate grounds,” said Chandrakanta.
Not getting much into what all happened in the lower court and high court related to the sentence of the accused arrested in Jaipur blast case, she said, “Hum to yeh jaante hain ki itne saalon main kissi ko saza nahin huee, ab kya umeed karen (As far as I am concerned, I know that in these years not even a single person has been convicted. Now I have no hopes left),” she added.
Chotu Mahawar, a sanitation worker of JMC, got angry when TOI reached his Purani Basti house. Chotu lost his son Shubham who was just 11 years old.
“Har saal aa jaatey hain log, saal bhar to koi poochta nahin (People come every year and don’t care throughout the year),” he said.
Chotu still regrets that on May 13, 2008, he should have taken his son back from her in-laws’ house. “That day his result was announced and I asked him to come with me to have some mithai from her maternal grandparents’ house at Sanganeri Gate. But he wished to stay back. That evening while playing he had gone to the Hanuman Temple near Sanganeri Gate and never returned,” said Chotu.
Aneesha Begam is speechless and she seldom talks to anyone even within her family. “Bachchi ko dahi lene bheji thee, wapas hi nahin aayi (We had sent the girl and she did not return),” said Shabnam, the aunt of 10-year-old girl Ilma who was also killed in the blast.