About two score years ago, to this day, much before president Obama made a mention of the city and much before the word ‘Bangalored’ entered the English dictionary and hugely before Bangalore became Bengaluru much to the chagrin of the non Kannadiga, Bangalore was on the front pages of almost every major newspaper of the world.
It all started with, the former Indian Prime Minister being blown to bits by a suicide bomber in a small, decrepit, dust bowl of a town in Tamil Nadu called Sriperumbudur. The local master mind of this rather dastardly act relocated to Bangalore and made his home not too far from where I stay in the suburbs of Bangalore.
To cut to the chase, Sivarasan, more famously called the one eyed jack and his cronies died by their own hand when cornered by the police in the house that they were holed up in. Sivarasan blew his brains out and the rest chose to bite on a capsule of cyanide and apparently died in a ghastly embrace.
Apparently the police were lead to this solitary house by the local milk distributor, Haalina Muniyamma or milk Muniyamma. This brave lady showed the chutzpah to identify and inform the police of the whereabouts of the dangerous killers.
In the hoopla surrounding the event she was promised a reward, which has not materialized as promised. She is further astounded that Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of the slain PM, visited one of the conspirators in jail and ‘forgave’ her!( Vote Bank Politics is what some might say ) ‘What of my poor family?’, laments the old lady. ‘Does anybody care?’ To add insult to injury Muniyamma’s son was denied a police job because he could not grease the right palm, she says. She had led a simple life. Her life changed after the incident at Konakunte. For some time, she even had to live under police protection. "I was promised reward of Rs 10 lakh but nothing happened. After much pleading, I got Rs 60,000 in 1992,'' she recalls.
What a sham.Whoever said, that the world is a fair place?
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