On September 29 last year, Shagufta Farheen, 10, had told her mother that she wanted to be a “big person” when she grew up, writing “high” in her English notebook to reflect her “ooncha” ambitions. But that was not to be. The same day, Shagufta and five others were killed in a blast at Bhiku Chowk.

A year later, 11 have been arrested in the case; a chargesheet has been filed against, among others, a sadhvi — Pragyasingh Thakur — and an Army officer — Lt Col Prasad Purohit; and the probe, which has spanned five states, has involved an alleged conspiracy by right wing Hindu extremists and RDX whose source is yet to be tracked.

Meanwhile, Farheen’s mother, Farida, is still waiting for the promised compensation from the state government and Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi, who had both announced a cash relief of Rs 1 lakh each. Her plight echoes that of the families of the other victims.

“Farheen wanted to become a doctor. She was learning English to get admission in an English medium school and take us out of this neighbourhood,” said Farida.

In Mumbai, Additional DGP (ATS) K P Raghuvanshi is convinced that the probe “in many ways is significant for our times as it finally confirmed that ATS does not go behind any religion. It tried to connect the crime to the criminals, who, in this case, happened to be people with extremist right views.”

The three men who allegedly planted the bomb— Ramji alias Ramchandra Kalsangra, Sandeep Dange and Pravin Mutalik—are yet to be nabbed. Quashing reports which allege that Ramji is dead, Raghuvanshi said: “Our teams are out. Ramji is alive. We have enough new leads which confirm that he is alive. We will have them soon.”

... contd.