My next case was that of a Muslim boy, aged only about 20 or so, whose elder brother (aged 25) ran their family business – a ‘jeans pant’ stitching unit. Their godown, in which 500+ pairs of jeans had reportedly been stored, had been burnt to the ground in the riots. Their ‘factory’ (which sounded to me like it was only a small shop premise, where labourers used to work on sewing machines) had been looted, and thereafter burnt. He had brought photographs of both locations to support the claim. He had already managed to lodge an FIR with the police, and did not need our assistance for this. He assessed the loss of stock at Rs 8 lakh, and the loss of the ‘factory’ at Rs 10 lakh: the government scheme caps compensation payable in the event of loss of business at Rs 5 lakh.

My third case was a Muslim gentleman whose motor car – a Hyundai i20 – had been burnt in a massive parking lot fire. His insurance papers had apparently been kept in the car, and he had no SMS or email record of his policy – he did not even know which insurer he had taken a policy from. He was hoping to get whatever he could from the government, as there was no hope of a recovery from any insurer.