Muniyamma’s son was the first to get a glimpse of Sivarasan and gang

Bengaluru: August 15, 1991. It was a pleasant morning in Konanakunte, then a suburb of Bengaluru. The village was slowly sloughing off its bucolic air as houses had begun springing up, sparsely dotting the countryside.
"Hello, I am told your mother sells milk. Will you give us one litre every day?" a medium-sized man stood in front of Nagesh Krishnappa, then a nine-year-old boy and younger son of Haalina Muniyamma, the village's milk supplier, waving a Rs 100 currency note.
Nagesh agreed and the stranger promptly took him to the house where the milk was to be delivered. "I took the Rs 100 note and said I didn't have change. The man said, ‘Don't worry, just deliver the milk without fail every morning from tomorrow'," Nagesh, now 34, recalls.
At the crack of dawn the next day, Nagesh was at the doorstep of the house. "I clearly remember it was a Friday. I knocked on the door of the house. The door opened slightly and a hand came out, thrusting a vessel at me. I poured out one litre of milk into the vessel. And then, the hand drew back and the door was slammed on my face," says Nagesh.
The routine continued on Saturday and Sunday. "One of those days, I curiously peeped inside the half-open door and saw strange men and women with mufflers covering their faces, sitting in a semicircle. The woman who collected the milk almost pushed me away furiously," Nagesh says.
"On August 18, some men met me and my mother. They asked us about the occupants of the house. We told them everything, and how mysterious everything appeared," Nagesh said. The men were police officials, hot on the trail of the strange group.
Accompanied by Muniyamma, two police officials posing as newlyweds, knocked on the door, enquiring whether the house was for rent. "Slowly, the door opened and a woman asked what we wanted. When my mother said she was looking for a house for rent, the woman replied in Tamil and closed the door," Nagesh recalled.
By August 19 morning, policemen had cordoned off the house, recalls Nagesh, who watched all the action. The young boy slowly realized he was witnessing something big, and Sivarasan and the others responsible for killing Rajiv Gandhi three months earlier, were holed up in the house.
"The man who has first asked for milk and taken me to the house, arrived in an autorickshaw with breakfast. He saw the policemen and asked me what was happening. When I said police were looking for Sivarasan, he pushed the auto driver away and tried to drive away the vehicle. Before he could speed away, police pounced on him," he recalled.
CONGRESS HAS FORGOTTEN US
It was my mother and I who helped police identify the house, and talk to the occupants. We were promised Rs 10 lakh for our help. What we got was only Rs 60,000 in 1992. My mother died, dreaming of compensation. Now we request the Congress government in Karnataka to help us. Kempaiah, the then DCP who played a key role in the operation, knows everything. We don't know what is stopping him from helping us.
Nagesh Krishnappa