Lively & playful, kid is just like Shivani
BHAVNA VIJ

NEW DELHI, JAN 22: The three-month-old baby lay crying when his mother wasmurdered in the next room. Sunday, January 23, marks one year since TheIndian Express principal correspondent was strangled and stabbed in her eastDelhi flat and the police are no closer to catching the culprit as they werethen.

They set their own deadlines which have come and gone, they are stilltalking of leads and suspects, interrogations and inquiries but there'sstill no ``clinching evidence.''

For Shivani's family, the year has been a story of learning to live withouther, showering their love and attention on baby Tanmaya, who is staying withhis father, Rakesh Bhatnagar. He celebrated his first birthday on October19, 1999. But the family cannot hide their bitterness while talking aboutthe police investigations and the fact that somebody is getting away withmurder.

``The police will not do anything. Maybe they don't want to do anything.Where there is a will, there is a way,'' says Shivani's father Satish Kumar.But he cheers up instantly while talking about his grandson. ``Tanmaya is solively and playful. Just the way Shivani had wanted him to be. In fact, heis so much like her bright and intelligent,'' he says with pride.

Tanmaya is too young to talk but is learning to say little words like `papa'and `didi'. One word which he might never learn is `mama', the word whichkids usually learn first.

While Shivani's father is guarded while criticising police investigations,her younger sister Sevanti is more vocal. ``They know who the culprit is butare deliberately not doing anything. All I want is that they should stoptroubling us. My parents are old and the police keep harassing them. Theyland up at any time without informing and keep asking all kinds ofquestions,'' she says.

This also bothers Shivani's father. ``They keep questioning us. We havecooperated to the extreme. We have provided them with all documents andeverything else they wanted. They have not even returned anything to us,''he says. Shivani's husband, Bhatnagar, also complains that police have beenharassing him, calling him to Adarsh Nagar for interrogation, as and whenthey like. ``If a question is raised in Parliament about the case or if somepolitician brings it up, I am the victim the first person they call forinterrogation,'' he says.

According to him, the police are trying to shield the real culprit. ``Mypriority in life is now my child's safety and security and then my own. Itry to spend as much time with him as possible,'' Bhatnagar adds. EvenShivani's father says that he tries to meet Tanmaya as often as possible.``And whenever I go there, I spend all my time playing with him,'' he says,and almost immediately he thinks of Shivani. ``The tragedy will stay with usfor a lifetime. They say, time is a great healer but then scars alwaysremain,'' he adds.

No `clinching' evidence yet