The torture after the death

While it has been a prosperous and bright Diwali for most of us, some of us were struck by a tragedy. A close friend of mine, Yeshwanth C B, who is a renowned advertising photographer in New Delhi was killed instantaneously when a bomb went off in the busy Sarojini Market on last Saturday. http://www.yeshphotography.com/profile.htm

While this may seem like another common tragic story which keep reoccurring in our country, there is a twist. The tragedy unfolded much later for us who went to collect the body from the hospital. To begin with, there was no information of how many bodies were there in the mortuaries of the three hospitals, or where the injured and the dead were taken to.

Sunday Oct 30, 9am. Thankfully some friends had gone around all the hospitals to check each patient to see whether it was our Yeshwanth. Finally they managed to locate the body in the mortuary, just by the ring he was wearing. The body was charred beyond recognition and the ring was the only clue.

Oct 30, 7pm. We reached Delhi and rushed to Sarojini Nagar police station. Contrary to the warnings given by our Delhi friends, the Delhi Police were very cordial and patient with our case, assuring us that by Monday, all formalities would be completed and the body would be handed over by evening. Quite surprised by this courteous behaviour, we didn’t even bother to talk to the media who wanted to know more about our case.

Monday Oct 31, 9am. The police inspector and the area ACP were all quite amiable today too while finalizing the body identification process. Our friends had carried a recent photo of Yeshwanth with that particular ring. By afternoon the process was over and the body was about to be given for post-mortem. But now the police were not showing the same eagerness to give it. We were guessing that they might need some grease on their hands to speed up the process. They were pushing the file to ACP’s office and the police station so that we realize the need to bribe by ourselves.

Oct 31, 3pm. By afternoon, it dawned to us that all the duty doctors have gone home and the post-mortem was not possible today. The next day being a holiday, we now realized the game ploy. Immediately we alerted all the media-persons by phone that this kind of a harassment is happening. Just after ETV did a detailed story on how 2-3 families are being harassed, all TV channels focused the spotlight on us. Even the correspondents of regional print media, reported about the story.
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/nov22005/national178222005111.asp

Tuesday Nov 1, 9am. Now the police had a nice twist to the story. There is another claimant for the same body, so a DNA test is inevitable. DNA results would take at least 10 days which fuelled our worries. Just when we lost hope, some media people came forward to help us with connections with the higher-ups. In a last-ditch effort, Yeshwanth’s relatives knocked at Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil’s doors. The Home minister’s office directed the police to look into the matter and hand over the body to them if the second claimant was proved wrong.

Nov 1, 2pm. So the police made a drama of extracting blood from Yeshwanth’s brother and send it to the forensic lab for testing. Till that time, there was no trace of the second claimant for the body. Some media guys educated us that this is usual gameplan of the police to either extract huge amount from the relatives or prop up a false claimant to share the booty when the compensation is announced. Finally the body was sent for post-mortem that evening.

Wednesday Nov 2, 9am. After the post-mortem comes another issue. The ACP says there is a rule that the body of a terrorist act victim shouldn’t be taken out of station, since there might be a need to exhume the body for future investigations. Again started another round of arguments. Finally they agreed to give the body for chemical embalming process, which is done only in AIIMS.

Nov 2, 7pm. Finally when we arrived at the Delhi airport to carry the body back to Bangalore, the airways official had a small objection. The post-mortem report didn’t indicate anywhere that the body was of a bomb-blast victim. Some of us were at our wits end to find the reason why he needs to know what was the cause of death. He spelt it out clearly, that IATA norms say that any contagious disease victim like Yellow fever or Cholera cannot be transported by a plane.

Thursday Nov 3, 1am. Finally the body reached Bangalore and it was taken to Yeshwanth's hometown. It was heart rending to see the parents crying over the dead body of their 26 year old young boy. After this incident, I was wondering who is the terrorist here… the person who planted an RDX bomb in a market killing people instantaneously or the people in uniform sitting behind desks who slowly torture people to death…
It’s time that we gave a serious thought about it, before another bomb goes off and another drama unfolds…