Families of Khajurbanni hooch convicts filled with dread

Twenty-four hours after a local court in Gopalganj district of northwest Bihar convicted 13 accused persons — sentencing nine of them to death and four women to life imprisonment — in the Khajurbanni hooch tragedy, tears have refused to fall from the vacant eyes of Sarita Devi. She has been wailing since Friday evening, with her three bemused children looking up to her, at a total loss. Her 13-year-old sister-in-law is the only person by her side to console her. “For the last four years, I have been dying each day. Death has many faces for me. Now, after the court verdict on Friday, it has come as a full stop in my life,” she said. After a long, haunting pause, she looked at her three children and added: “What will happen to them? Does the court care and consider such innocent lives?”