After seven years of being branded a terrorist's father and undergoing terrible mental turmoil, M.R. Gopinathan Pillai, 72, will, from Monday onwards, know what peace is.
The septuagenarian, a former employee of the Bharat Heavy Electricals, finally has in sight the “possibility of victory” after fighting a tough battle with a system several times stronger than him to prove that his son was not a terrorist. Mr. Pillai, a resident of Thamarakulam near Charumoodu of Kayamkulam, about 60 km from here, has been shuttling between Gujarat, New Delhi and wherever he thought he would find justice since 2004 to prove that his son, Pranesh Kumar Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, shot dead by the police in Gujarat, was not a terrorist.
(On Monday, the Gujarat High Court observed that the June 15, 2004 encounter was a fake one.)
Pranesh was among the four alleged terrorists shot dead on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004 and the police termed them Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives allegedly on a mission to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Javed, according to the police, was driving a blue car that carried the alleged LeT operatives.
“I strongly believed that the police were lying about my son. His nature was just not one that would have anything to do with terrorism. And now, my faith has stood by me,” he says.
Love marriage
According to Mr. Pillai, Pranesh got himself converted to marry the Muslim girl from Pune with whom he fell in love. He got a new passport in the name of Javed Sheikh so that he could get a job in Dubai as his old passport was in the name of Pranesh Kumar, for which he used the ration card he had in Pune. “And that was not something difficult in Maharashtra, particularly in Mumbai,” Mr. Pillai said.
The incident had left its scars on the entire family. While Mr. Pillai, a widower since 1999, had to face questions from all over, including his own friends, the situation was worse for Pranesh's wife Sajida and her three children — Abubacker (now 14), Sainab (now 10) and Moosa (now seven).
“Sajida was not given a job in the same school where she was teaching earlier, while the children were not given admission to any school in Pune. Time proved a healer, and now, they are slowly settling. Sajida has a job, they come here in between. They were here for Eid, and we go there sometimes. Now, we are looking forward to a happy reunion,” Mr. Pillai said.
“From today onwards, my friends won't be able to call me a terrorist's father. My grandchildren will not be termed a terrorist's children. I have the mental satisfaction that I could carry on a tough battle without giving up,” he told The Hindu .
Mr. Pillai, meanwhile, attributes the current development to the committed approach of some officers in the Special Investigation Team, who “showed the courage” to submit a report “that was not watered down in any manner.”
