The Youngest Suspect  (English, Paperback, Mohan Peggy)

A story set in 2002-2003 Gujarat.  Political fiction.  The publishers thought it was an idea whose time had come.

From the lens of Peggy Mohan’s involvement in a POTA trial in Ahmedabad a story grows, one that gives her space to connect the dots and look at the things that had only been hinted at in the ‘confessions’.  An imagined boy, Adil, a jailed suspect with eyes that saw it all.  Godhra, the worst days of 2002, the insides of the police lock-up, Sabarmati Jail.

People around him keep hope alive.  Family.  Lawyers.  Civil society, partly driven by guilt.  Women seeing a parallel between violence visited on a minority group and domestic violence.  Believers who are not communal.  Others who refuse to fall in with the goose-stepping crowd.

This is a story seen in shots.  A boy busy putting 2002 behind him when they come for him.  A legal team in a back room using quantitative analysis to discredit POTA ‘confessions’.  A distraught mother taking refuge in her ghazals.  Comrades in jail protecting their youngest.  And all around them a glittering new world of certainty, with a shadow side of doubt, stress and a need to hide.

About the Author
Peggy Mohan was born in Trinidad, West Indies. She has taught linguistics, made television programmes for children, been a cartoon animator, and has twice been an expert witness responsible for analyzing confessional statements in terrorism trials. She now teaches music at the Vasant Valley School, New Delhi.