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| Prof.Prasanna, Harippad, Alappuzha |
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Traumatic indeed it would be for any mother to realize that her teenage son is the prime accused in a bank holdup. Yet when Prof. Prasanna was confronted with the bundles of currency notes that her son had robbed from a bank at Palluruthi, Kochi, she did not take long to realize what she had to do: inform the authorities at the earliest.
The robbery had taken place without leaving a clue to the police. And the one-man gang that had done it admitted it all freely to his mother. So it was now up to his mother to decide which way to act: either to suppress the truth and escape all ignominies or brave it all and face the consequences.
She had always stood by truth and honesty in her teaching career, public life and even family affairs. When she remembered the thousands whom she had taught, she immediately made up her mind that the guilty should be punished, be it her son or not. As prelude to informing the judiciary, she informed a relative at Chertallai, who was an advocate. Together with him she met the First Class Judicial Magistrate, who could have agreed to the surrender of the accused in her presence. However, she directed them to contact the police.
The police were informed and they promptly came to arrest the youngster. It was later that they started twisting the arrest to suit their personal interests. They tried to make it appear that they had made the arrest on their own.
Although it created a lot of heartburn to her initially, the people at large and the media rallied around her version. Her act of rare honesty had thus been vindicated.
“If you are honest, then nothing can defeat you,” she says about her experience.
Courtesy: Rojan Abraham, Sthree Dhanam, May 2002
Contributed by: Administrator
