On the fateful day, Harbans Singh, Ranjit’s father, went to the Belghoria police station to lodge a complaint against attempt to loot in his grocery shop near his house in Station Road of Belghoria in North 24 Parganas district.

But when the police officers advised him not to go back to his shop, he laughed: “What will happen to me? I have been staying in this place for so long and all are my friends and well-wishers.” Harbans was proved wrong.

Soon after he returned to his shop, a frenzied mob set the shop on fire, killing Harbans and his younger son Sheru Singh. The mob looted valuables worth Rs 6 lakh.

Ranjit, who was also in the shop, ran and took shelter in another person’s house. The entire family was given shelter in a neighbour’s house.

A case was registered at Belghoria police station by the then Inspector in-charge of the police station S Dutta Mazumder.

Ranjit, now 50, who runs a small transport business at Rathtala in Belghoria, has not been given a single penny either from the state or Central government.

Interestingly, three others who were killed in the anti-Sikh riots — Mohan Singh, Joginder Singh and Anup Singh, all from Burdwan — got Rs 10,000 from the state Disaster Management department.

“In our family, two lives were lost and a shop was looted and burnt down. But we got nothing. In case of West Bengal, the Central government is discriminating. It has left West Bengal from the states, whereby the victims of the 1984 carnage are going to get ex-gratia payment,” Ranjit, who has now shifted to Barrackpore, told The Indian Express.

On January 16, 2006, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs sent a circular to the chief secretaries of 12 states and the NCT of Delhi that the Central government, acting on a recommendation of Justice Nanavati Commission, had decided to make ex-gratia payment and other financial assistance to the victims of 1984 carnage.

Neither the ruling Marxists nor the Opposition has ever spoken in favour of these people who lost their dear ones and properties worth lakhs.

“We feel aggrieved that neither the Marxists nor the Opposition did anything for those victims. We suffered a lot, materially and mentally,” said Jagmohan Singh Gill, general secretary, Central Gurudwara Committee, who was a college student in 1984.