Drama in real life

Surinder Dayal is a brilliant engineer. If getting through the gruelling entrance test for Jamalpur...

Surinder Dayal is a brilliant engineer. If getting through the gruelling entrance test for Jamalpur (Special Class Railway Apprentices College) wasn’t enough, he went on to top the course and bag the Railway Board Chairman’s gold medal. He rose fast in the organisation, got one good posting after another and landed the plum job of the head of a coach factory.

With diligence and sharp observation, Surinder was the one to expose an old “temporary recruitments” racket in the factory. The main accused were identified and summarily discharged. The “aggrieved” party of course did not take it lying down. They had been humiliated and hit below the belt. Their long-standing source of income had been blocked. They wanted to avenge this; they had to teach the big boss a lesson.

Terrorism in Punjab was at its peak those days. These guys tried to reach out — those with distorted thinking are in any case always on the look out for “soft” clients. In due course contact was established and a supari given out on Dayal. In common parlance he was “already dead”. It was only a matter of time.

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Soon the marauders got their chance. Surinder and his wife, Neetu, were returning from a wedding in the nearby village. It was late and two guys wielding a country pistol stopped them. The driver was shot first and then Surinder was hit in the legs and a bullet hit Neetu in the neck. Suddenly the headlights of a bus lit up, yet the killers escaped in the darkness.

The Dayals survived and, thanks to a benevolent railway minister, received excellent treatment and long-term physiotherapy in the United Kingdom. They recovered rapidly. Surinder became wheelchair-bound for life but was fine otherwise. He resumed his duties, did well again, rose up the ladder and finally ended up as a judge in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).

Meanwhile, the dismissed employees went to court and finally their case came up before the CAT. And, as you may guess, the case landed in Surinder’s lap. This was when Judge Surinder Dayal had the note made on the file: “Being the victim myself of an attempt to murder, arising out of the dismissal, I am an interested party and can’t hear this case.”