‘Terrorist’ says not her missing son, but she says a mother’s heart knows

Meerut family to seek DNA test of man in jail, says he’s under police pressure

FOR 10 YEARS, the family scoured through all leading newspapers daily for any information on Praveen. On July 1, mother Mahesh Devi saw the face she had come to fear she would never see again. The man in the photo in newspapers that day, police say, was Jaish-e-mohammed terrorist Mohammad Abid alias Fatte. Abid himself has denied he is Praveen Jatav. But, Mahesh says, a mother’s heart knows.

“In the Lucknow jail, he walked towards us with a smiling face. I am a mother, I could see the teary eyes behind his ‘No’. He had been threatened and pressured to not accept that he is Praveen,” says Mahesh, who is in her late 50s.

Express Mahesh Devi (right) with daughter-in-law Prabha.