Thursday, March 17 2005 18:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Her life crashed twenty years ago when the Air-India Flight 182 came splintering down off the Irish Coast on June 23, 1985 after allegedly being blown up by Sikh militants.

Today, the fragmented life of 73-year old Mukta Bhat, mother of a victim of Kanishka bombing, received yet another blow on hearing the Vancouver court's verdict that acquitted two Indian-born Sikhs accused in the blast.

"It is unfair," she says, her voice reflecting the sense of dejection.

"It is a miserable feeling that overcomes especially when one has seen such a tragic death and heard a verdict that does little to soothe those wounds, inflicted 20 years ago," said Bhatt, whose 27-year-old son Parag, his air-hostess wife Chand and six-month-old son, Siddharth, were killed in the bombing.

"The wounds had begun healing, but now they are bruised afresh," she said, reacting to the verdict.

Speaking philosophically, she said, "Actually it matters little whether the accused live or die, because what we cherished died 20 years ago and it is too long a period to really worry about the perpetrators of the crime."

"Though we have got over the initial hatred, a feeling of anger overpowers when I pause to think, how could they not have enough evidence even after 23 months of trial".

"I had a lot of hopes pinned on the Canadian judicial system. I had always believed that justice would be delivered. In fact during the trials, when I was present, I was confident that the guilty would be brought to book, but I really don't know what influenced the course of justice" she said, her sentence trailing incomplete.