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Thomas Mathew, the suspended director of the ministry of home affairs, is a man on the run. Not because any court has issued non-bailable warrants against him and law enforcement agencies are on his lookout to arrest him.
" I have not slept in my house for more than a week," the man admits in a freewheeling conversation that promised to reveal more but ended abruptly because he was suspicious.
"I think someone is tailing me and I think it is time for us to move elsewhere," he suggested. Then he leaves the place and disappears with a man who is continuously accompanying him.
"I have not gone home because someone told me that plainclothesmen would be lurking around and they may arrest me. I want to avoid sleeping there," he explained.
He has been in touch with the media through some friendly journalists, who have been even writing out his press releases and dropping them to contacts in the media fraternity.
One such person assisting him with preparing press releases is a former editor of an eveninger from Delhi.
"I am sorry my wife mistook you to be a cop in plainclothes," he told this correspondent, who had visited his residence in Sainik Nagar in West Delhi in the hope of an interview.
Fifty plus, Thomas Mathew carries a small black briefcase, full of press releases and letters he has written to various leaders, including one to President K R Narayanan, seeking his intervention.
Convinced that he is under surveillance, he is constantly on the move and does not disclose his next destination to anyone, except close friends. "I am Thomas Mathew on the line. Are you the correspondent who went to my house the other day and met my wife? I can meet you at 8.30 pm," he offered.
Not to let the opportunity go by, I offered to meet him in any part of Delhi at anytime. Though the appointment was at 20:00 hours IST, he turned up half an hour earlier as a precaution and not finding anyone waiting immediately left to return after half an hour.
"What is your stand on Khalistan," he asked me. "I do not believe in any such thing. My country is India," I said. "In any case, I am here to interview you and not the other way round."
"You may not believe in such things, but I have firm convictions and I have been a member of the Students' Federation of India in my early days," he said, making no bones about his leftist leanings.
Constantly on the move, he has been staying at the house of the Janata Dal ideologue in East Delhi to keep in touch with friends, relatives and journalists.
On Thursday, he met former prime minister Chandra Shekhar and impressed upon him to talk to the authorities to give up the witch-hunt against him.
He said that the former prime minister spoke to Union Home Minister L K Advani, who promised to have another look at allegations against Thomas.
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