Victim's kin worry about survival

NEW DELHI: The dark, narrow road that leads up to Santosh Kumar's house, deep in the innards of Laxmi Nagar, seems indifferent to the tragedy that struck there two days ago. One of the two earning members of the family, Santosh, was killed in Mayur Vihar on Tuesday afternoon when an ex-serviceman shot him dead trying to rob him of Rs 9 lakh he had withdrawn from a bank in Noida for the chartered accountancy firm he worked for in Laxmi Nagar.
Unable to reconcile to the loss, his father Shiv Chandra Kamath shudders with the thought of making ends meet for the family, including Santosh's mother, his two younger brothers, his sister and his wife and two children."My son and I were the only earning members of the family. Santosh was the main provider. He took care of almost all the expenses," said Kamath, who works at the Bharat Petroleum canteen in Noida.
He worries about providing for his son's wife and children. Santosh and his wife, Babita Devi, have two daughters — four-year-old Ruchi and two-month-old Barkha. Babita was unavailable for comment. Santosh’s mother, sitting quietly amidst a bevy of mourning relatives, also refused to speak about her son. "I don’t have the courage to speak," she said. Meanwhile Ruchi, who saw us off at the door, seemed cheerful, though slightly puzzled, unable to comprehend the tragedy that has invaded her life.
The family got to know of the murder at around 6.30 on Tuesday evening — three hours after the incident — when someone from Santosh's office informed them that he had been admitted to a hospital. By then he was already dead. "My son was a simple, quiet boy. He talked to very few people and never came into conflict with anyone," said Kamath. Another relative added that Santosh was interested in only two things — cricket and pooja.
Shiv Chandra's grief hardens to rage when he thinks of the injustice of it all. "I can tell you nothing about what happened or how it happened," he said. How a man could be shot down in broad daylight in a populated area of the city is a mystery to him.
Santosh had been working as a peon at Pandey and Co for seven years. But his boss has not been seen after the murder. He was unavailable for comment and had not even come to offer his condolences to the bereaved family.