#ThrowBackToday: The curious case of Paralympian Oscar Pistorius and his fall from grace

On the day known to be a celebration of love, the world woke up to a huge shock. South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius was found to have shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on February 14, 2013. Why? The former professional sprinter mistook her for an intruder. He was changed for murder in the High Court of South Africa and later, was proven to be not guilty of murder but of culpable homicide, illegal killing of a person with or without intention. In 2017, his sentence was more than doubled thus, he was subjected to an additional 13 years and five months in jail.

The case quickly became a high-profile one as Pistorius was a star athlete. He lost both his feet to a congenital defect and yet, he competed in both Paralympic Games and Olympic Games, becoming only the tenth para-athlete to do so. In the year 2012, he became a well-known name by winning the right to compete against athletes without disabilities at the 2012 Olympics which were being held in London. Though news of a speedboat crash laden with empty alcohol bottles, an arrest for injuring a woman by slamming the door on her face and accidentally discharging a gun beneath the table kept bobbing up, his image largely remained untarnished until the death of his girlfriend.

Paying up
Though there can be no monetary compensation that can bring back a life, the perpetrators of the horrific Bhopal Gas Tragedy Union Carbide conceded to pay $470 million to the government of India on February 14, 1989.