‘I went to hospital to look for my injured husband, they took me to the mortuary’

Fifty-eight-year-old Ashok Kumar Sharma had left for his hearing at the Delhi High Court at 8.37 am on September 7, 2011. Two hours later, his wife Sangeeta Ashok got a phone call informing that he was injured in a bomb blast.

"His friend, who had called to inform me, called again asking me to come to RML Hospital. I boarded a bus with many questions in my mind. I wanted to scold him for not being more careful," says Sangeeta, a resident of Palam Extension in Dwarka Sector-7.

At the hospital, Sangeeta was not taken to any ward, but to the mortuary.

"I saw my husband lying on a stretcher. I was asked to identify him. I called out to him and asked him to wake up. He was sleeping peacefully, something he always enjoyed. But this time, he didn't wake up," she recalls.

Sharma was a physical education teacher with the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, but was dismissed from service on charges "that were false", Sangeeta claims. He challenged his termination order in court and was to appear for the hearing on the day.

"He exposed massive misappropriation of funds in a construction case," she says.

The Delhi government did pay Sangeeta the compensation amount, but the money has been spent already on the education of her three children.

"My husband was the only earning member. None of my children work. Where is the source of income?" she says, insisting that there should be a cell to provide rehabilitation to blast victims.

ALSO READ

To beat cancer, Stanford professor reaches out to Keralites in Delhi and elsewhere

Woman alleges gang-rape by husband, in-laws

3 more cases of minors rape reported in Delhi

Aarushi's phone was used after murder, claims CBI officer