Mumbai: While Lt Col Prasad Purohit, main accused in the 2008 Malegaon bombing case is passing his day in high-security Nashik jail, it is an everyday battle for his doctor-wife Aparna who has kept her two sons away from the news about their father being arrested in connection with a terrorism case since last 11 months.
The tale of the Purohit household is totally different -- no newspapers, no television channels and internet connection -- which is otherwise an inevitable aspect in upbringing of children.
A homeopath doctor by profession, Aparna has to fight the battle of keeping news about her husband away from her children everyday and also supplement her story by weaving in fictitious story to her children that their father was on a clandestine mission.
"I have told them that their father is on an assignment for the country and he cannot contact us. While for them it is a matter of great excitement that their dad is on a secret mission, I have to put with a lie every day," Aparna, who regularly attends to Purohit`s court hearings, said.
Undeterred to speak about her hardships but without mentioning the names of her children, she said "the elder one keeps asking me questions as to why his father has not called even once or as to why I keep travelling out of Pune often.”
"I have told him that something has gone wrong with the mission and that his father is being blamed for some mistake he has not committed for which even I have to go and assist him."
Lt Col Purohit has been accused by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) of having allegedly played a key role in the conspiracy to carry out blasts in Muslim dominated areas.
Purohit has been named as one of the founder members of Abhinav Bharat and the one who sourced the RDX used in the blast from the army. He had also been accused of having been closely associated to other prime accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Dayanand Pandey and retired Major Ramesh Upadhyay.
Hell broke loose for Aparna, who had to give up her comfortable profession in Panchmari, Madhya Pradesh, with a long list of clientele, and shift to Pune. She travels to
Mumbai almost every week ensuring that she doesn`t miss a single court date.
Bureau Report
