Aftab Hussain Ansari

A year of silence from the government, police and McDonald’s drove Mohammad Alauddin to file the petition that halted the renovation of the chain’s Park Street outlet on Tuesday.

On August 12 last year, Alauddin’s 24-year-old son Aftab Hussain Ansari was killed after an iron shutter flung across Park Street by an explosion in the restaurant hit him on the head. Aftab was waiting to cross the road on his way to Queens Mansion, where he shared a room with his five family members.

The next day, McDonald’s India in a statement had promised to “offer support” to the family.

On Wednesday, McDonald’s India (north and east) declined to comment on the judgment without gathering “all the information” and discussing it with legal experts.

The family meanwhile survives on the meagre income of Alauddin as a liftman and his elder son Afzal as a water purifier mechanic.

Alauddin’s wife Rauzon Khatun is yet to get over the shock of Aftab’s death. “It has been over a year and everything is still the same,” said the 45-year-old woman on Wednesday.

Next to her, on the single bed that occupies more than half the room, played Afzal’s daughters, one three years old, the other in her eighth month. Their mother sat silently on the floor near a stove.

“We manage to run the household with whatever little we earn. We want justice for my brother. What happened to us could happen to someone else tomorrow,” said Afzal, who used to be a salesman like his younger brother.

The family’s lawyers, Negi Ahmed and D. Kabir, pointed out that no one had been arrested in connection with the case in the past 12 months though “the same police had arrested Haldiram’s owners after a fire in the eatery’s kitchen”.

“Why shouldn’t the restaurant authorities be asked to pay compensation to Aftab’s family, who lost an earning member?” asked one of the lawyers.

According to legal experts, until someone is held responsible for the blast through criminal proceedings, the family cannot claim compensation.