Justice now in sight for widow of blast victim

The Delhi Court will deliver its verdict on Thursday in the October 29, 2005 Delhi serial blasts case, in which three blasts claimed over 60 lives.

The serial blasts occurred at Paharganj market, at Govindpuri where the bomb was kept in a DTC bus and at Sarojini Nagar market in South Delhi where the maximum number of casualties were reported.

Kiran stands with a photo of her husband Lal Chand in her hand at the juice corner in Delhi's Sarojini Nagar market. Lal Chand was killed by a pressure cooker bomb placed by the bomber near his juice shop.

Tears trickle down her eyes as she recalls that fateful Dhanteras day, when her husband called her a few hours before the blast. "He called me around 4 pm, asking me to come to the shop. But I was busy with Dhanteras preparations at home and he then talked to our son and daughter," Kiran recalls. She had no idea it was the last conversation with her husband.

Hours later, her phone rang again. "It was my mother, who stays in Palam. She called me after seeing the news of the Sarojini Nagar market blast on TV. She told me that Lal Chand was not picking up the phone and asked me to try. I was scared," says Kiran, with her voice breaking.

As her calls went unanswered, Kiran's worst fears came true.

Bablu, a boy working at the juice shop, had noticed an unattended bag lying near the shop and alerted Lal Chand. They opened the bag and found the wired cooker bomb. The two tried to take it far away, but it exploded, killing Lal Chand and Bablu among 50 others.

"My children, who were two and three-years-old then, don't remember their father's face. They sometimes watch our marriage CD and cry. Life has been tough without him. My children lost their father to terrorism. I am sure justice would prevail" says the soft-spoken Kiran, who now runs the juice shop.