IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER: Sergeant Bapi Sen’s sons, Somsubhra, aged nine, and Shankhasubhra, two-and-a-half, at their Parnasree home on Wednesday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Joydeb Sen returned from the city sessions and civil court late on Wednesday afternoon and told his mother that Bapi’s killers had been found guilty.

Menoka Sen, unaware that the court would pass its verdict on Wednesday, bursts into tears.

“We were a big family and had our ups and downs. Bapi was very young when he joined the force as a sergeant, but he ably shouldered the responsibility of the entire family,” she mumbled.

Menoka Sen then went silent, as if drifting away with the memories of her beloved son who died at the hands of his colleagues, defending the honour of an unknown woman.

Joydeb, her eldest son, held on to his distraught mother.

Bapi Sen’s widow said little. “My husband cannot be returned to us. We are proud of what he did, but pride alone doesn’t make a family. As far as the verdict is concerned, we only want society to benefit… I don’t want anyone else to suffer the way I did,” said Soma.

Somsubhra, aged nine, and Shankhasubhra, two years and three months, clung on to their mother, not clear about why Wednesday was momentous.

“Somsubhra misses his father. Shankhasubhra is still too young to fully comprehend what happened. I don’t know what we will tell him when he is older and asks us why his father doesn’t drop him off to school, like his other classmates,” said their grandmother Menoka Sen.

For the Sen family, residing in the government quarters of 27/164, Parnasree Pally, in Behala, the court’s finding the five constables guilty of murdering Bapi on the night of December 31, 2002, “guilty” was little source of solace.

The braveheart’s brothers Joydeb and Anup had gone to court on Wednesday, while Soma remained at home with her sons, along with Bapi’s parents, his elder sister and sister-in-law.

“I want the culprits to receive exemplary punishment, so that the acts of evil my brother died protesting against do not keep happening,” said Joydeb.

“People are forgetting how to protest against what is wrong these days, so an exemplary punishment is needed, or else everyone will forget why my brother died,” said Jayasree, Bapi’s elder sister.

Thursday morning is what 27/164, Parnasree Pally is waiting for.