Will my son be freed if we commit mass suicide, asks convict’s mother

Despair gripped the family of Dinesh Rajgor as news came in that he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2002 Best Bakery case by the Bombay High Court on Monday.

Not knowing what to do next, his mother Shardaben Rajgor said she waited long enough to see his son getting freed of charges of burning down Best Bakery in which 14 people were killed, and the only thing she can think of now is mass suicide.

"They took him away framing wrong charges that he killed 14 people, but nobody cares about our family of 12. Will they free my son if all the 12 members of his family kill themselves?" said Shardaben.

One of Rajgor's two sisters had lost her mental balance when he was served life sentence by a special court in 2006 while one of his three children is blind. His father runs a bakery shop in the same neighbourhood where Best Bakery was burnt down by a mob on March 1, 2002.

"We spend Rs 2,500 per month on the medicine of his son. He was six-month-old when his father was arrested. Will the government come to help us? No, nobody came to see if we are alive or dead. Why should not government listen to his parents?" Shardaben asked.

His father Phoolchand came to know of the judgment when a neighbour told him that five of the accused were freed, but at that time he did not if his son was one of them. "He is innocent. He ran his own bakery along with me. To run the family, his wife has also started working now," he said.

"How will I marry my daughter? We are not able to afford the education of his children. We are getting older but continue to take care of the entire family," he added.

... contd.

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