When Nafe Singh Rathee, Bahadurgarh MLA of the Indian National Lok Dal, and his nine accomplices were handed down the sentence on May 19, and packed off to Rohtak jail, it signalled the end of a six-year ordeal for the families of Jairaj, who was killed, and his cousin Ranbir Singh.

``We were left alone to fight the case. Everybody else retreated, especially after Nafe Singh became the MLA. He had money and political power. We never expected him to be punished. But there is still justice in the world,'' says 65-year-old Umed Kaur, emotionally. The case was registered on the complaint of her husband Ranbir Singh `Gandhi', now ailing and barely able to speak.

The incidentbegan innocently enough on September 17, 1993, when Nafe, then chairman of the Municipal Committee, had gone to the local Shiv temple to pick up a ladder kept there and take it home. Jagbir, Ranbir's brother and president of the temple committee, protested, saying it was meant only for temple use. After a heated argument, Nafe went back, ladderless.

However, he returned the next day with brother and bruised ego in tow. Armed with lathis, they attacked Jagbir. ``I tried to stop them by coming in between, thinking that they wouldn't hit a woman. But they hit me too and broke two bones in my left arm,'' says Umed Kaur.

Not satisfied, Nafe brought a dozen more men, armed with pistols, kattas (country-made revolver), sticks, sickles and even a double-barreled gun. They attacked Ranbir's house, resorting to open firing. ``We had no weapons, only lathis and bricks which we gathered from our house. We didn't have a chance. People were being hit, and they just kept falling,'' Ranbir says, almost in awhisper.

The 20-minute clash left a dozen people injured; one of them, Jairaj, later succumbed to injuries.

The clash took place even as the people of Jatwara mohalla stood there and watched, too frightened to intervene. ``I remember it vividly. I have seen such a thing only in the movies. It is a good thing that they have been sentenced,'' said Ram Prakash, a Jatwara resident.

It's a sentiment that is not shared, however, by Nafe Singh's party. While Om Prakash Chautala was unavailable, his media coordinator Vineet Punia said Nafe had been ``falsely implicated'' and there was no question of any action being taken against him. ``The Bhajan Singh government was in power at the time the incident occurred. It was a political conspiracy. Though Nafe Singh had already been charge-sheeted in the case, we gave him the assembly ticket after weighing all options,'' Punia added.

There was widespread support for Nafe in the INLD office here when this correspondent visited it. ``I don't think the party plans totake any action against him. Chautala went to meet him in jail yesterday and we will challenge the order in the (Punjab and Haryana) High Court in Chandigarh,'' local unit president Captain Bhoop Singh said.

Nafe Singh's cousin Satish Rathee, also a member of the INLD, was equally blase. ``I don't understand why all this is happening. Most politicians have some criminal cases against them. Seventy five per cent of the male population in Haryana carries a weapon. Why is such a fuss being made over this,'' he said. Why, indeed?