Plight of a helpless father

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Shankar Raja hurriedly had set off from his home in Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu on Sunday evening after receiving a telephone call informing him that his elder son Venkat Subrahmaniom had met with an accident in Thiruvananthapuram city, where he studied. He was accompanied by his neighbour and son’s friend Wilbert on the journey.However, on reaching the city, Shankar learned that what he was told over the phone was completely untrue and his son had not met with any accident. But the happiness he felt on hearing that his son was safe did not last even for seconds. The truth that was revealed was enough to shatter the old, but well-built man; he fell unconscious on hearing that his son was booked by the police on charges of attempting to wipe out a whole family  for money. The police, when they summoned Shankar, had not told the truth, for they did not want him to come prepared with a lawyer to bail out the culprit. Moments later, Shankar recovered consciousness and gave his statements to the police.Shankar was under the impression that his son was pursuing a Masters in Business Administration in the capital city all this while. He had never failed to send his son money whenever he asked for it citing educational needs. Little did he know that what his son was doing in the capital city had nothing to do with education.For Surahmaniom, education was just a ruse to get money from his loving dad for his survival.More shocking news followed as police told Shankar that his son was neck deep in debt amounting to lakhs of rupees, which led him to commit the crime. "I don’t have anything to tell you. If you want to know anything, ask the police. I have told them everything I knew,’’ Shankar told City Express when approached.He was continuously perturbed by the mediapersons who thronged the Pettah Police Station to learn the latest developments in the case. Finally, Shankar and Wilbert had to run for cover from camera lenses focused at them, but in vain. Even though he slipped out of the police station and sat under the bus shelter nearby in the guise of a normal passenger, the cameras followed him there too. Finally, he was pushed into a state of numbness in which he no longer possessed the energy to dispel his ‘pursuers’.