For former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh’s widow Jaswant Kaur, the news of the accused’s escape has just strengthened her belief that there was a deeper conspiracy behind her husband’s death, one that still casts a shadow on her present.At her sprawling house in the former CM’s native village Kotli, about 30 km from here, the 78-year-old woman, who enjoys the rank of a Cabinet minister, wondered how the accused had escaped when the authorities said they were fortifying the prison. It is almost evening but neither the government nor district authorities have called the family with the news. ‘‘Only well-wishers and friends have been calling up since morning,’’ says Kaur.‘‘They couldn’t have dug up the tunnel with spoons. besides, where did the sand go? There was certainly someone helping them from inside,’’ she said. ‘‘Even the court used to be held inside the jail for security reasons, then how could this happen,’’ she said. Conspiracy was a reality even in ‘‘Sardar sahib’s (Beant Singh) assassination.’’ ‘‘Was it possible without a deep-rooted conspiracy to kill a CM who was so heavily guarded and that too in the Secretariat complex,’’ she said.The slow pace of the case is part of the conspiracy, she said. ‘‘Yeh sab koi gehri saazish hai,’’ she declared as son Sukhwant Singh nods. The family, which has six guards, feels security should be increased. Gurkanwal Kaur, Beant Singh’s daughter, demanded DPM L.K. Advani’s resignation over the matter. “The then DGP did not suspend anybody after the assasination. Since then, it has been a series of lapses. The martydom of our father has been treated in a most ‘non-serious’ manner,’’ she said.
