Residents still in shock, try to recover from horror

A day after the horror show played out in real time, wherein, an ex-Merchant Navy officer had stabbed his father and then burnt several policemen in a nihilistic suicide attempt, the residents of Ajanta Apartments, who were the unwilling participants of the show, are still coming to terms with the incident.

Two police constables stood guard at the entrance gate of the apartment, as they would stop anyone from entering the apartment. Several elderly people could be seen trying to get into the society and had to argue for sometime, after which the residents form the inside would allow them to enter. But more careful than the police was the lone security guard, Nandlal, who was the first person to be assaulted by Rahul Matta.

“I was standing guard when Rahul came around afternoon. He wanted to get inside but I stopped him as he had been debarred from entering the apartment. He sat outside the bench and smoked a cigarette while his father, came down to meet him. They started arguing and later he had a fight,” said Nandlal.

Nandlal had watched as his father went into the apartment and Rahul followed. When he stopped him from moving forward, Rahul took out a knife meant to cut open coconuts from his pocket and hit Nandlal on the back. “The blunt edge of the knife hit me but I survived. He chased his father and stabbed him multiple times,” he added.

As many of the residents were coming to terms with the horrific attack, his family far removed from the glare of media and curious onlookers were in a state of mourning. One of the relatives from Ravinder’s family had told this paper that the family was shocked by the incident and is yet to come to terms with it.

“The mother is completely traumatised and is not saying a word. She is yet to recover from the shock. We have asked her younger son, who is currently in Mumbai, to come down to Delhi. Rahul had always kept to himself and never told us about anything. He went on to marry some woman who he was with in a relationship and then later wanted to shift here; all of this was news for us. He barely came to the house in the last few years,” the relative said.