'IC814': Slain passenger's widow had no idea of husband's death
On Thursday, Anubhav Sinha's IC814: The Kandahar Hijack premiered on Netflix. Following its release, several interviews recounting the incident have resurfaced. Among them, Rachna Katyal, the widow of Rupin Katyal who was killed during the 1999 hijacking, revealed that she wasn't informed about her husband's death until much later. In a throwback interview with Rediff in 2001, she shared that she was under the impression that Rupin was alive and in the hospital when she returned from Kandahar.
Rachna was told about Rupin's death much later
Everything seemed happy as Rachna and Rupin were returning from their honeymoon when the flight was hijacked on December 24, 1999. Rupin was stabbed to death by the hijackers on the first day, but Rachna was kept in the dark about his demise. "I was told Rupin is no more only much later after even the kriya ceremony had been performed," she told Rediff.
'I was becoming hysterical so my father-in-law finally told me'
Rachna further added, "It was only when I repeatedly kept asking for Rupin and they could avoid it no longer that I was finally told the truth." "I think I was becoming hysterical so my father-in-law finally pointed to a large photograph of Rupin and brokenly told me, 'That is your Rupin. That is all that we have of him.'"
Rachna's father-in-law encouraged her to get a job
Following the incident, Rupin's father, Chandar Mohan Katyal, encouraged Rachna to find employment. He requested Indian Airlines to offer her a job at their Delhi office. Despite the support from the airline, Rachna expressed disappointment with the government's lack of condolences. "Nobody from the government...bothered to contact us or to represent the Indian government when Rupin's last rites were being done," she said. In 2001, she remarried and her father-in-law performed the kanyadaan.
