A Mother Who Never Returned: 33 Years On,  Mumbai Blast Survivor Still Waits for Justice

Tushar Deshmukh was 13, studying in class 7 at Dadar's Dr Antonio Da Silva High School. On March 12, 1993, his mother Priti Deshmukh, 38 stepped out of the house at 10 am. She went to Jindal canteen in South Mumbai to deliver chapatis. She didn’t wake up Tushar, who was sleeping when she stepped out for work, as she planned to come home early that day, but never returned. Her completely burnt mortal remains reached home late evening when Mumbai was shattered with 1993 serial bomb blasts. 

After delivering chapatis, Priti left the canteen. She reached Haji Ali bus stop, boarded bus number 85 to reach home early. At around 1 pm, when the bus reached the Century Bazar bus stop, a taxi full of RDX parked nearby exploded. Everybody who had boarded the bus, including Priti,  was killed in that deadly attack. 

Tushar, his grandmother Sumati, father Pradeep and neighbours got anxious when Priti didn’t reach home by the afternoon. The family started searching for her. “We all were thinking, she didn’t return home in time because she might be helping blast victims, because by that time news of the serial blasts started coming in, but later in the evening we  rushed to KEM Hospital. She wasn’t there in the injury ward, where hundreds of blast victims who had survived were undergoing  treatment. My mama (maternal uncle) found her in the mortuary.” Tushar told Outlook. 

Priti’s body, like several others, was too burnt to be identified. Her brother identified it with a small piece of saree stuck to her body, said Tushar. 

“I saw her  body in pieces, packed in a plastic sheet. I was very young, so my family didn’t allow me to perform the last rites. I couldn’t see my mother's smiling face ever again. Every day, she used to bid me goodbye while leaving for work. On the day of the blast, she didn’t disturb me by waking me up as I was sleeping. I couldn’t meet my mother for one last time before she was killed in the blast, I grew up with her memories, ” says Tushar. 

Priti was a self-made woman who overcame several challenges, including  a dysfunctional family. She helped her husband Pradeep repay loans by delivering chapatis to canteens and tailoring work etc. She endured domestic abuse at home by her husband, yet she was determined to take care of her husband and child. She used to love singing, dancing, and helping peoplein distress. She also helped victims of  the 1992 riots in Mumbai. Her son Tushar has hundreds of her memories to share, living with the wound that refuses to heal.   

The day Priti died in a blast, she planned to come home early, spend time with her son Tushar and leave for Pune the next day to visit a relative. That visit never happened, the relatives she meant to visit, had to come for her funeral. 

33 years have passed since those traumatic 1993 serial blasts, yet many victims like Tushar are waiting for justice. Tiger Memon, alleged mastermind of the blasts, is yet to be tried  and is at large. His brother and convicted terrorist Yakub Memon was hanged to death in 2015 after all  mercy petitions were rejected. Tushar believes the main conspirators are roaming free. “Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon who hatched the conspiracy of the blasts, are roaming free, our system couldn’t arrest and try them. There is no justice even after three decades,” says Deshmukh.  “Why didn't Sharad Pawar, the then chief minister,  take responsibility for such a tragedy, ensuring justice?” asks Deshmukh.  

A series of coordinated bomb explosions that struck Mumbai on March 12, 1993, killed 257 people and injured over 700. The  targets included landmarks such as the Bombay Stock Exchange, Air India Building, Zaveri Bazaar and Plaza Cinema, Shiv Sena Bhawan, Century Bazar in Worli and the Mahim Fishermen Colony. 

Investigation agencies later revealed that the blasts were orchestrated by underworld figures linked to Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon, allegedly with support from terrorists  in Pakistan, and were seen as retaliation for the communal violence in Mumbai after the Babri Masjid demolition of 1992. The attacks marked India’s first large-scale coordinated urban terror strike and profoundly changed the country’s security and anti-terror laws.

Over the years Tushar moved on with his life, his father Pradeep also remarried. However, the trauma of losing his mother and  devastating memories of the blast still lingers. His hope for justice remains unfulfilled. 

A self-trained chef and writer, Tushar today  runs a business of rental cars and a chemist shop in Dadar. After dealing with a dysfunctional family, he found an extended family in his friend Yogesh Mhatre. He has received care, love and support from the family. But at the age of 13,  he was pushed into a situation, where he had to console his family members - father and grandparents after his mother’s death. 

On March 12, 1993, childhood  vanished in a moment for 13-year-old Tushar. His father had an addiction, and the responsibilities of the entire family fell on the tender shoulders of Tushar. He didn’t have time to mourn the loss of his mother. Much later in life he began processing the trauma of his mother’s demise. 

During his college days, Tushar used to visit Dr. Shubhangi Parkar at KEM hospital for psychiatric treatment. There was no support from any government institutions or initiatives for healing or coping with the trauma. The compensation of Rs 2.5 lakhs to the family of victims was given immediately after the incident. Tushar’s father Pradeep Deshmukh received financial help but refused to help his son. 

Every year on March 12, Tushar and a group of victim families visit Century Bazar memorial  and pay respects to the blast victims  and their loved ones. “People give us sympathy, they pay tribute to our relatives who died in the blast, light candles, but there is much more that the system has to do to prevent such bomb blasts,” signs off Tushar.