Death cuts short dismissed teacher’s fight to get back job

NEW DELHI: Thursday had more grief in store for the shell-shocked kin of the high court blast victims. As bodies were brought home, wailing families tried to come to terms with their loss. When Sangeeta Sharma heard about the blast, little did she know that her husband, Ashok Kumar Sharma, was also at Delhi High Court. "He must have gone there for work related to his case. I only got to know when his friend called me," said an inconsolable Sangeeta."When I heard aboutthe blast, I called up Ashok at 10.52 am. His phone rang twice and then gotdisconnected. I assumed that he must be busy. After that his phone remainedswitched off. When he could not be traced till 2 pm, we went to all thehospitals where the injured had been taken. He was finally identified at RML,"said his friend, Shankar Sharma."Because of his long hair and beard,he had been wrongly identified as a Sikh in the mortuary," said Shankar. "Myfriend spotted Ashok being pushed inside an ambulance on a news channel. He wasconscious and looking at his severely damaged legs. That is how we know that hewas alive at that time and must have died on the way to the hospital or duringtreatment," he added.Fifty-eight-year-old Sharma had been a physicaleducation teacher in a school before being dismissed from service on falsecharges, allege his relatives. "Sharma blew the whistle in a construction casein which there was massive misappropriation of funds. He paid the price fortrying to expose corruption," said his friend, S P Singh. He said it waspossible that Sharma may have found fresh evidence in his case and had gone tothe court on Wednesday to file an affidavit."The family was beingharassed after Sharma got into trouble with the school authorities. He wastransferred to Srinagar and prevented from joining service. Later, apart fromlevelling other minor charges, school authorities cited the period of hisabsence as unauthorized leave and terminated his services. He had challenged histermination in court," said Singh.Another blast victim, Pawan KumarBansal, had moved into his Vidya Enclave Gurgaon home only six months back. Hehad retired as the assistant general manager from State Bank of Patiala and wasworking as a financial and legal advisor. He was among the first few casualtiesof the high court blast and was declared brought dead at RMLHospital."Bansal is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. Hisdaughter is married and his son was going to tie the knot in the next fewmonths. He had spoken to me about the preparations. I met Bansal on Wednesdaymorning before he left for court. He had greeted me and said that we would catchup in the evening. That, of course, was not to happen," said PS Bhalla, aneighbour.Other neighbours remembered him as an exceptionallyfriendly and cordial person. "He was a very busy man and we did not get to seemuch of him. The family used to stay in Dwarka before they moved to Gurgaon andwe spent very little time with them. However, we knew that he was someone with aclean heart. He will be missed sorely," said Bhalla.