https://www.thehindu.com/news/natio...s-says-former-policewoman/article24950213.ece
Former policewoman had tried to stop assassin from approaching the former PM
Anusuya Daisy Ernest, now a retired police officer, would never forget that terrible moment on the night of May 21, 1991 in Sriperumpudur when a ‘human bomb’ killed former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and 15 others, including a Superintendent of Police.
Ms. Ernest, then a sub-inspector, was one of those who survived the attack despite suffering grievous injuries. Seconds before the blast occurred, she had attempted to stop the assassin from approaching Mr. Gandhi.
The
Tamil Nadu government’s decision to recommend the release of seven life convicts of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case provoked the former police officer to come out openly against the move.
“I do not understand why they should be released. If they are serving a life sentence, let them serve it till the end. Am I not suffering disabilities, caused by the blast, for life? Are not family members of the police officials who died suffering permanent loss of their dear ones,” asked Ms. Ernest, who joined the service as a constable in 1981 and retired as Additional SP in Villupuram district in May 2018.
She said that after the blast, she had to struggle for her life in a hospital for three months. “The left side of my body was affected badly.
“Two fingers of my left hand were amputated immediately after I was admitted to a government hospital [in Chennai]. One finger was fixed through plastic surgery. I was operated upon several times to get pellets removed from my body,” she said.
Opinion of families
Asked why the convicts should not be treated with compassion, she said, “Why go by what the convicts’ advocates or supporters say? Why does no one seem to care for the opinion of the families of the deceased or injured?”
Ms. Ernest, who likes to spend her post-retirement days visiting churches, stressed that there was no need to show mercy to the convicts, who, according to her, had been involved in an “act of terrorism.”