CHENNAI: When S Abbas lost his mother, Santhani Begum, in the explosion that killed Rajiv Gandhi , he was orphaned. The youngest of five brothers, he had lost his father just two years earlier.Abbas recalled the trauma of a childhood destroyed by an act of terror while speaking on the sidelines of a media interaction at the Chennai press club on Thursday. Abbas had gathered along with others who lost their loved ones in the blast which killed the former prime minister on May 21, 1991. Most of the 16 victims were either Congress workers or policemen assigned to security work. Today, their families feel cheated by a system that offered little or no succour when they needed it, and intend to implead themselves in the review petition filed by the Centre in the apex court.“I remember feeling like my life had come to an end,” said Abbas, who was just 10 years old then. When Begum, a Congress worker and south Chengalpet district mahila president, didn’t return from Sriperumbudur, he and his brothers initially thought that she had not found means of transport to come home. It was in the morning when they listened to the radio that they heard about the blast. “We went from Thirumullaivoyal, where we lived, to Sriperumbudur and found my mother’s body,” he says.With no one to look after them, the boys were left to fend for themselves. “We didn’t have to pay rent since we have our own house. My elder brother worked in a private firm and we lived on what he earned,” says Abbas, who studied till Class 10 and then dropped out to do a vocational course.The bearded young man, clad in a grey shirt and looking serious, is quietly bitter about the Supreme Court verdict to commute the death sentence and the chief minister’s move to release the convicts. “One of the convicts’ mother is fighting for his release. But our mother is gone forever and nothing will bring her back,” he says.Abbas is also bitter about the fact that despite his mother being a Congress worker, no cadres have come forward to help them. “We even sought an appointment with Sonia Gandhi, but didn’t get one,” he says.Social worker John Joseph says he will never forget the nightmarish events of May 21, 1991 when Rajiv Gandhi was killed. John’s elder brother, Edward Joseph, perished along with him. Edward was a special branch CID inspector and part of the security detail deputed to protect the former prime minister.“A police officer came and told us that Edward had been injured in the blast. My mother, sister-in-law and I rushed to the general hospital. Only when we arrived there we got to know he was dead,” recalls John.Edward was then 39 and left behind a wife who was a teacher, and two young children aged 10 and six. “Life was a constant struggle for them,” says John. He has fond memories of Edward. “He was tall, well-built and full of life. He was an old student of Loyola college and a fine sportsman,” says John.John says he respects the SC verdict, but believes that no one can escape god’s judgment. “It was a pre-planned murder,” he says.The relatives of victims said they will implead themselves in the case filed by the Centre against Tamil Nadu government’s decision to free the convicts involved in the assassination after the next hearing on March 6. “We want justice. We lost our dear ones. We suffered a lot. We don’t want to see the accused walk free after committing a serious crime,” said M Mohan, son of Congress worker Munuswamy, who was also killed in the blast.Congress spokesperson V Narayanan said his party would always back the victims in their fight for justice. Hitting out at chief minister J Jayalalithaa for her ‘plan’ to release the convicts soon after the SC commuted their sentences to life, Narayanan said it was a game played for cheap political mileage. “We are with the victims. We will help them in their fight for justice,” said Narayanan. Relatives of three of the victims killed in the blast were present at the press meet.