Captain Sunil James returns today to give his son a final send-off

The pall of gloom that has been hanging over the James household lifted to let in a sliver of hope last morning with Togo authorities finally releasing Captain Sunil James from detention five months after he was incarcerated over suspected links to a piracy attack While the family received news of the release with relief the joy was bittersweet at best laced as it is with the grief over Sunilrsquos infant sonrsquos death earlier this month Pillars of strength Aditirsquos sister Avni Madappa and brotherinlaw Rakesh Madappa were a constant presence by her side in the familyrsquos prolonged campaign to secure the release of Sunil James Seen here with Aditi and Avni is their mother PicNimesh Dave News of Sunilrsquos release from detention in Togo broke at 8 am yesterday through a Tweet from Syed Akbaruddin who is spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs A call from the PMrsquos office to the family a little while later confirmed the breakthrough Any relief or joy experienced by Sunilrsquos wife Aditi and other relatives however is obscured by their grief over the circumstances of his return Aditirsquos sister Avni Madappa said ldquoThough the release was declared by the president of Togo around 235 am on Thursday we received a call from the PMrsquos office at 830 am Goodbye son Vivaan son of Sunil and Aditi James passed away on December 2 just days before his first birthday File Pic Aditi got to speak to Sunil He is reported to have told her ldquoI am happy that I am finally released and I am thankful to all the authorities who stood by me but am extremely upset and unhappy with the circumstances Vivaanrsquos deathrdquo said Sunil to Aditi briefly and he informed her that he was looking forward to returning home to conduct his sonrsquos last ritesrdquo ldquoShe has been waiting since December 2 the day Vivaan passed away to mourn his death with her husband After losing Vivaan we were worried wersquod lose Sunil as well till yesterdayrdquo she added Sunil is expected to return to the city around 2 pm today with the flight from West Africa to Mumbai taking around 14 hours His relatives are waiting with bated breath for their beloved kinrsquos return home having waited for five anxious months and made countless attempts to secure his release Vijayan MT Ocean Centurionrsquos third engineer who had also been incarcerated with James has also been released Time for closure While Sunilrsquos return home marks the culmination of his familyrsquos protracted campaign to effect his release from Togo it is also the beginning of a new chapter equally painful the fragmented family now reunited will collectively mourn the loss of their beloved infant hoping to come to terms with his tragic and untimely death ldquoOnce Sunil is back we plan on meeting Vivaanrsquos doctors so he can understand what exactly caused it It is every fatherrsquos right to know what went wrong and snatched his infantrsquos liferdquo added Avni The family can hope to find the closure that they have been cruelly denied so far by way of Vivaanrsquos last rites They are planning to conduct Vivaanrsquos funeral on Saturday in their church ldquoWe are yet to decide when we will be ready to go ahead with the funeral as Sunil and the rest of us are still coming to terms with Vivaanrsquos death Saturday is the tentative date so farrdquo said Rakesh Madappa Sunilrsquos brotherinlaw After giving the beloved child a final sendoff the family will mourn his death in a manner that their harrowing struggle for Sunilrsquos release hasnrsquot allowed them so far ldquoBarely a week after Vivaanrsquos death we went to visit the Togo embassy in Delhi and got in touch with the authorities Due to this we did not get to mourn his deathrdquo said Rakesh adding ldquoSunil is being escorted by Jeeva Sagar Indian High Commissioner to Ghanardquo Even as they prepared for Sunilrsquos return the family took a moment to thank MiD DAY and other media publications for their help in exposing the apathy of the authorities about their ordeal ldquoWe have constantly been in touch with MiD DAY for the past few months ever since we started trying to secure Sunilrsquos release The constant media exposure helped us make it through this ordeal so far Hopefully by next year all of us will be able to resume our livesrdquo said Avni Baby Vivaanrsquos body is now awaiting final rites at a hospital morgue in south Mumbai The body had to be shifted out of the Cooper Hospital morgue after authorities intimated them that they do not preserve bodies for durations beyond two weeks she added u00a0 We thank mid day for being with us through it all Aditi Thanking MiD DAY for its support Sunilrsquos wife Aditi said that while she felt a surge of relief after hearing the news of her husbandrsquos release she is equally distraught over her sonrsquos deathu00a0ldquoIn the first few months that I was fighting for the release of my husband I was annoyed with almost every authority for not being able to get him back u00a0Today even though my son is no more I am satisfied and relieved that at least I could get my husband back I had promised Vivaan that I would get his father back and had promised Sunil to bring him back to his son Today I have delivered on my promise but unfortunately my son is no morerdquo u00a0She added ldquoWe are coming to accept that Vivaan is not with us any more Despite all of this I would like to thank MiD DAY for getting in touch with us first and writing about our ordeals MiD DAY covered all the aspects of the entire ordeal right from Sunilrsquos plight in the Togo jail to what we were going through back home All this media coverage made a huge differencerdquo