Anguished over failing to bring doctors he believes were responsible for his young son’s death almost 18 years ago to justice, a father flung a file full of documents pertaining to the case at Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan at a function in Chandigarh.
Arrested by alert security personnel but released with a stern warning some hours later, Chandigarh businessman Balbir Singh Makol said he does not regret his action. City residents are nonetheless agog with the replay of sorts of the embarrassing exchange former US President George W. Bush had with the shoe-throwing Baghdad journalist some months ago.
Mr Singh told reporters he became angry after local officials stopped him from personally handing in a petition to the CJI, who he believes could be his final hope to resolve his unending predicament.
“I have been running literally from pillar to post for the past 17 years but the courts have given a clean chit to the very doctors whose negligence cost me the life of my 18-year-old son. I went to meet the Chief Justice but they wouldn’t allow me to go near him,” Mr Singh said.
Suffering from a knee infection, Mr Singh’s son died under “mysterious circumstances” while under the care of private doctors at a Delhi clinic. The still grieving father says he has very nearly exhausted his life’s earnings in trying to get justice for his boy but has found no relief from the courts. “I am a very frustrated man and I do not repent what I did at the CJI’s function where the top judicial officers of the country were present,” he said declaring that he was completely disgusted and had lost all faith in the judicial system.
“Maybe what I did will serve to awaken the courts,” he said.