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| Sujata and Biswanath. Picture by Biplab Basak |
Jalpaiguri, Nov. 7: Broken and broke, Tarakeshwar Lohar is in search of a job and a new life.
?He (Lohar) is not at home. He has gone to Jharkhand to look for a job,? his wife, Sujata, told this correspondent after he reached their rented house in Eastern Dooars today.
A far cry from the spacious bungalow opposite Dalgaon Tea Estate factory where she regularly hosted parties, this hut bore testimony to Lohar?s fall from undisputed leader of the estate to a man spurned by society.
Lohar had fled the house on November 6 last year when garden workers infuriated by his atrocities set it ablaze. Nineteen people were killed in the fire.
Lohar, the main accused in the massacre who is out on bail, has been living with his wife, three children and father in this single room hut ever since.
?You people are responsible for our misery. We do not want to speak to you,? Biswanath, Lohar?s father said. But the mother in Sujata could hold back her grief.
?We have no money. People who called themselves friends of my husband now want to have nothing to do with us. We were forced to stop sending our children to school because their friends would tease and call them ?children of a murderer,?? she said.
Sources said Lohar had been unable to pay the landlord the house rent of Rs 700 for the past three months.
?Everybody knows my husband and, thanks to what you people have written about him, no one wants to help him. The only hope we have is to move out of here and to a place where no one knows us,? Sujata said.
?I used to host parties regularly at our house in Dalgaon. Now I go without food on many occasions. Even people whom my husband helped with money or a job have distanced themselves from us,? she added.
Rahul, Rohit and Uma, Lohar?s children, all of who studied in Class X, have been forced to discontinue their education.
?What else could we do?? Sujata asked. ?We just about manage to give them a meal a day. From where will we get the money to pay their school fees??
Lohar?s father, who had been sitting quietly listening to his daughter-in-law narrating her woes, spoke up.
?Not that we could have sent them to school if we had the money. The children were terrorised in school and hated it. At least they have some peace at home,? he said.
?We just hope he comes back with some good news so the children at least can start life afresh,? he added.