It was a quiet November afternoon in 1986 when a postman knocked on the door of music composer Ganesh, of the celebrated Shankar-Ganesh duo, well-known for crafting a few of Tamil cinema’s most memorable tunes. He delivered a parcel, despatched by registered submit to his T. Nagar dwelling. The parcel seemed to be a reward. It remained unopened till round 4 p.m.
When Mr. Ganesh opened the bundle, he discovered what seemed to be a cassette tape recorder. It got here with a handwritten message from a Salem tackle, claiming to be a Deepavali reward with full directions on learn how to function it.
But the second Mr. Ganesh plugged the system into a energy socket, the contraption exploded. Both Mr. Ganesh and his spouse Ravichandrika sustained accidents. He suffered grievous injury to his fingers and legs, whereas his spouse was bruised on her face.
“They had been rushed to a non-public hospital. Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran visited the couple on the hospital. Senior cops visited the scene and launched an investigation.
According to a report revealed in The Hindu on November 18, 1986, the parcel had been mendacity at a submit workplace for a number of days, as Mr. Ganesh had been away from Chennai.
Another explosion
On the identical day, one other tragedy struck at Madras Harbour, when two employees – Nagalingam (45) and Govindan (35) – had been caught off guard by an explosion. According to The Hindu report dated November 19, 1986, a ball-like object, discovered close to the fireplace service station, went off when the boys started unravelling the thread round it. Nagalingam was admitted to Stanley Hospital, whereas Govindan was handled as an outpatient. Police collected splinters from the scene for forensic examination by explosives specialists.
Back in T. Nagar, the thriller of the parcel bomb deepened. The Chennai metropolis police arrange two particular groups to crack the case. One was dispatched to Salem, the parcel’s origin, whereas the opposite carried out native investigations.
Chennai on November 22, 2016
| Photo Credit:
B. Jothi Ramalingam
A twist within the story
Nearly two months later, the items of the puzzle started to fall into place. On January 15, 1987, the police apprehended the person they believed was behind the parcel bomb. Another archival report in The Hindu, quoting Commissioner of Police W. I. Davaram, recognized the accused as 38-year-old Kandaswami, a lyrist from Chettipatti village close to Edappadi (the outdated report had the spelling ‘Edapai’) in Sankari taluk of Salem district.
Kandaswami was arrested on the Salem bus stand as he was boarding a bus to his native village. The police had been on his path, visiting his dwelling a number of occasions earlier than lastly nabbing him. All they needed to proceed was a handwritten be aware that got here with the parcel, containing directions for activating the lethal system hid inside what seemed to be a cassette participant.
According to police, Kandaswami allegedly harboured a grudge towards Mr. Ganesh over fee disputes for tunes. It was this resentment, the police believed, that led him to precise revenge. The parcel, they stated, contained a gelatine stick camouflaged contained in the system. During a raid on his home, police seized track written by Kandaswami that matched the handwriting discovered within the parcel.
Vision restored
Fast-forward to May 2014. Nearly 28 years after the explosion, Mr. Ganesh took a main step towards restoration. An superior eye surgical procedure restored his imaginative and prescient, misplaced partially within the 1986 blast. Mr. Ganesh had been dwelling with blurred imaginative and prescient, unable to tell apart colors clearly. He recalled how the preliminary surgical procedure after the explosion had eliminated the pure lens from his eyes however couldn’t change it, as there was no structural help.
Dr. Amar Agarwal (proper) of Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospital with movie music director Ganesh, after restoring the imaginative and prescient of the music director by way of a sophisticated surgical method on the hospital, in Chennai on May 31, 2014
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives
“I came to Dr. Amar Agarwal of the Agarwal Eye Hospital for a check-up and he told me there was a lot of scarring on the cornea,” Mr. Ganesh had stated. He underwent a glued intra-ocular lens (IOL) process, generally undertaken on individuals with severe eye harm, particularly victims of bomb blasts and cracker explosions.
“We have to be very careful while operating on a bomb blast victim. After the operation, Mr. Ganesh could see clearly from the very next day and the healing process was fast,” The Hindu reported, quoting Dr. Agarwal after the surgical procedure.
In a method becoming a music director, Mr. Ganesh had composed a track in reward of Dr. Agarwal.
