Parents of a few Nithari serial killing victims on Sunday afternoon staged a demonstration before Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's residence in Lucknow demanding the cancellation of transfer of Noida Senior Superintendent of Police R K S Rathore.
Rathore was given marching orders on Saturday for lapses in the Nithari investigations, eventually handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Seven victims' parents came down to Lucknow along with activists of Brahmin Navjagrit Samaj, a little known voluntary organisation. Its president Satish Chandra Misra had on Saturday led a demonstration before the Noida district magistrate's residence to press for Rathore's return as SSP.
While the earlier memorandum sought cancellation of Rathore's transfer only, the memorandum handed over to the chief minister on Sunday also included another demand for revocation of Circle Officer Dinesh Yadav's suspension .
No sooner was the chief minister told about the demonstration, he promptly called the entire group in and pacified them with his assurances.
"The chief minister was very kind; he has said that he would get Rathore's case re-examined," said Jhaboo Lal, the father of 10-year old Jyoti who was among the first few kids to fall into the death trap laid by Noida businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Surender Koli in their Sector 31 bungalow.
At least 17 children were kidnapped and sexually abused before being brutally hacked to death by the psychopath duo.
Looking quite satisfied after a one-to-one with the chief minister, Jhaboo Lal said, "The chief minister has also agreed to give jobs to one family member of each of the victims, besides loans and monetary compensation of Rs 5 lakh that have already been disbursed."
"Mr Rathore was always very responsive to our complaints; he treated all of us with a lot of patience and compassion; but for him, no one could have ever got to the root of the killing field created by Pandher and Koli," he said.
Ram Kishan, who lost a 4-year-old son in Nithari, said, "I fail to understand why the administration chose to shift Mr Rathore when the entire case was actually cracked by him."
Misra, who led the delegation told this scribe shortly after meeting the chief minister, "The chief minister's assurance has given us hope that action would not be taken against anyone who was innocent."
Asked what prompted him to bring the victims' parents all the way to Lucknow, Misra claimed, "I am a social worker and have been doing my bit for the victims right from day one -- soon after the missing children were reported and well before the killings were exposed."
