Karur: “Even after a year, justice has not been served for the taking of our people’s lives on our own soil,” said Karur MP S. Jothimani.
In her WhatsApp post today, Karur MP S. Jothimani said, “Even after a year has passed, I can never forget that horrific incident that completely shattered me after my mother’s death.
The wound still aches from that day of immense tragedy, when the lives of 41 of our people, including tiny children, were taken in terrifying circumstances on our own soil. It is a pain that cannot be so easily moved past.
Even now, when I think of those moments when our people, having lost their tiny child, mother, daughter, son, father, elder sister, younger sister, elder brother, or younger brother, would embrace me and cry out upon seeing me, my heart trembles at the memory of how I was shattered and broken, unable even to find the strength to comfort them.
In the Karur government hospital mortuary, the child lying with eyes closed as if sleeping on a peacock feather, the sister lying disheveled and trampled, the father who, after searching everywhere for his daughter and failing to find her, had to see her there, and the fear of our people who embraced me and wept, with bodies trembling on hospital beds and memories frozen in terror, have become indelible scars of sorrow in the deepest layers of the heart, wounds of grief that can never be erased.
I had no words of comfort to offer to our people who had lost their loved ones in terrible horror, and who had cried out in grief, sorrow, and pain, except to embrace them. Many times, my resolve not to cry in front of them was not strong enough.
The following month was also tormented by sleepless nights. Every morning dawned with a heavy heart and a troubled mind. At every doorstep, even as I took off my shoes, my heart grew heavy.
Inside, an unbearable anxiety grips us as we face our people, who are shattered and broken by sorrow, pain, and fear. Only by holding ourselves together can we step into the house. When we leave the house, the heart is left in pieces.
The next house is the same sorrow, tears, and anguish. Even now, when I think back, the terror of those dreadful days freezes in my heart. Only after staying in the hospital for 20 days and receiving treatment was I able to gradually return to normal life.
But even after a year, justice for the taking of our people’s lives on our own soil has not been delivered. I cannot easily move past the fact that the investigation has been shelved.
The terrible suffering that happened to us should not happen to anyone else anywhere. Justice must be delivered for the deaths of our people. These two things are my plea as the representative of our people.
Although no one can make up for the loss of our people, may time grant our people the strength to face everything.
May the buds of happiness bloom again in their lives. “My deepest love, comfort, and embrace to each and every one,” he has posted.