Pranjlal Samant continues to suffer for the sins of his father.

May 7: Thirteen-year-old Pranjal Samant whose testimony has sent his father to jail for life on charges of killing his mother has no regrets about his actions. ``I do not feel bad about it, he deserved it,'' mumbles the shy, Marathi speaking boy.

Pranjal's father, Nandkumar, was convicted yesterday for murdering his wife in 1988 when the boy was just about five years old. Though the child was not present at the site of the murder his testimony that his mother, Suchitra, was regularly beaten up by Samant was sufficient to convict him. His mother's killing and his father's subsequent conviction have obviously had a deep impact on the class IX student. He is very quiet and both, he and his relatives are rather taken aback by the media invading their peaceful house at Vakola. In fact, the conviction and the attendant publicity has put Pranjal in quite a spot. His schoolmates are unaware of the family history.

``During all these years he has been telling his friends that his parents live in the village,'' disclosed Pranjal's maternal grandmother, Arundhati Naik. Only now, after his father's sentence has the teenager come out with the truth.

Pranjal's memory of his parents is hazy, though he recounts with the ease that comes with repeated telling. ``Father used to beat up mother often. He used to take her money and even the small change in my toy bank,'' he says with a straight face.

Ever since the murder, Pranjal has not set his eyes on his father except during their meeting in court. ``I told the lawyers that I can identify him though he has gone a bit grey,'' he said.

According to Arundhati Naik, Pranjal's father had made an abortive attempt to take Pranjal away from school. And ever since then, Nandkumar has continued to threaten the family, she pointed out. Samant who was absconding for six years after the murder surrendered in 1994. Soon after he was released on bail, he tried to get back his at the State Bank of India. Both Nandkumar and Suchitra were bank employees and were union activists when they fell in love and got married. The marriage went sour when Nandkumar's earlier conviction for the killing of a political rival during the Emergency came to light.

Suchitra, an active sportswoman, was on the verge of leaving home when she was mercilessly thrashed by her husband. She succumbed to her injuries the very next day. Pranjals grandmother then brought the little boy to live with her.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.