1984 Delhi Genocide - "Bhagat's Men Offered Me Rs 25 Lakh"

"Bhagat's Men Offered Me Rs 25 Lakh" - Darshan Kaur

"Whatever you need - chemicals, powders, anything - I will give them to you," Congress leader HKL Bhagat egged the mobs. Darshan Kaur, 47, could hear him speak as she lay crouched inside her Trilokpuri house.

Her husband was hidden in a small landing in the attic. The mob dragged him out, poured oil over him and set him afire. He was half-burnt when Kaur emerged from hiding and clutched at an attacker's legs, pleading for mercy.

The attacker dragged her down the road before throwing her off. She saw the local Congress leader Ram Pal Saroj instigating the mobs, saying, "No one should be spared." As many as 12 members of Darshan Kaur's family died in that attack.

Many of them were stabbed in their stomachs with pieces of glass. Today, Darshan lives with her three sons, all in their twenties, in Ragi Bagh in west Delhi. Two of her sons are unemployed. One drives an autorickshaw. Her husband ran a garment export and auto-renting business before he died.

The factories were burnt down, but some of the savings remain. Getting daily meals isn't a problem. But Darshan barely eats. "It doesn't feel as if it's been 25 years," she says. "It is still 1984 for me."

Outside her gate, a policeman sits on a cane chair, an ancient rifle by his side. For the last 11 years, Darshan has been under police protection.

Darshan Kaur - lost 12 family members

In 1994, HKL Bhagat's men came to buy her over. "Take Rs 25 lakh and don't give an affidavit against Bhagat," she was told. "Can you return at least one of my family back?" she asked.

She testified against Bhagat, and asked the court for police protection. Despite the security given to her, she has been attacked several times.

"I was leaving the court, when three men arrived on a motorcycle and brandished a pistol. I ran into the closest shop and just managed to survive," she recalls. Another time, a group of 20 men with lathis were waiting for her outside a gurdwara.

One of the attackers was Atma Singh Lubhana, the middleman who tried to bribe her on Bhagat's behalf. She left the scene with a bleeding nose and scars on her forehead. A 10-day hospital treatment followed.

Darshan now works as a nurse at the Tilak Vihar government hospital. "I want God to do the same thing to them as they did to us. Bhagat is now dead but I want Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar to hang while I'm still alive. Only then will I feel I've got justice," she says.

Since the case was reopened in 2008, Darshan has been helping the CBI gather more evidence against Tytler and Kumar. She has taken the team to meet 13 people, 11 of whom have testified against Kumar and two against Tytler.

"The CBI told us to keep these testimonies secret," Darshan says. "Why are they not disclosing them now?" When she put this question to the CBI, she got a vague reply from the investigative agency. "But I'm still hopeful that someday we will get justice," she says.

Credit: Tusha Mittal - Tehelka.com (25th April 2009)

 

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