Kanai Lal and Madhuri Das, whose son was killed on March 14, with their grandson at home in Sonachura. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

Nov. 16: A deep breath, a sigh and silence — that is how Kanai Lal Das reacted to the high court verdict this afternoon.

Kanai, 55, once a CPM member, had not prevented his son from marching with the other residents of Gangra near Sonachura on March 14.

Ratan Lal had come from his workplace in South 24-Parganas the day before to take part in it. “He was well built, fair, and carried himself like an army jawan. When trouble broke out near the Bhangabera bridge, he had decided to run back. A bullet hit him in the back. He was dead in two minutes,” Kanai said.

He has nothing to do with either the CPM or the Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee now.

It needed some prodding to make Kanai speak. “The judgment will bring solace to families like ours. It should have come earlier. The CBI should have completed the probe,” he said in one breath.

Ratan’s son Sambhu, 8, was playing in the courtyard with brother Surojit, 6. In eight months, the children have stopped asking when their father would return home.

“My son had saved money to ensure his sister Monimala’s education. She is now in Class XII, preparing for her higher secondary exams,” said Ratan’s mother Madhuri.

Sukumar Jana, 45, whose wife, Supriya, 35, died on March 14 felt the CBI would dig out the truth. “We will know about the outsiders who fired from the Bhangabera bridge.”

Sukumar’s son Soumyakanti, 17, had seen his mother fall to bullets.

Avijit Samanta, 38, of Sonachura, who took a bullet in his throat and is still undergoing treatment at SSKM Hospital in Calcutta, said: “The doctors operated on me at least eight times.”

His father Sunirmal, a clerk at a school inspector’s office and member of the CPM-controlled Co-ordination Committee of Schools, has snapped all ties with the party.

CPM leaders in Nandigram welcomed the court order, saying it would help instill confidence among the people. “We will appeal to the government to ensure that all those who have been killed or injured since January 3 are compensated,” said district secretariat member Ashok Guria.

The Pratirodh Committee’s Abu Taher called it an “historic judgment”.