GEORGE TOWN, April 19 — The sudden death of Karpal Singh has also shifted the spotlight on his eldest offspring, Jagdeep Singh Deo, as the likeliest contender to fill in the now vacant Bukit Gelugor parliamentary seat.

The answer will have to wait; the 43-year-old DAP politician politely demurred when the question was raised today.

“No, not now, just let us get past this first,” Jagdeep, who is currently Datuk Keramat state lawmaker told reporters at his father’s wake.

He appeared distraught when he said this.

For Jagdeep, his larger-than-life father who has been described as one of the most brilliant criminal lawyers of his time, hovers at the forefront of his mind.

His memories of Karpal however, lie closer to home.

Jagdeep recounted how his father loved to have his tea on the house porch, surrounded by family, exchanging stories and laughter.

“Just last week, we were talking and joking around… I’m going to miss that the most,” he said, adding that Karpal had a great sense of humour.

But Jagdeep remembers too his father as the crusader of justice.

One incident that stood out in all his memories of his father was on January 28 in 1989 when they received a call to say that Karpal was released from the Kamunting Detention Camp.

“He was detained there for 15 months and when we heard that he was being released, it was the happiest moment of my life then,” he said.

Karpal, who was the DAP deputy chairman then, was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in the October 27, 1987 Ops Lallang.

Karpal was killed in a motor accident early Thursday morning after the car he was travelling in collided with a lorry on the North-South Expressway near Gopeng, Perak.

He left behind his wife, Gurmit Kaur, five children and eleven grandchildren. 

Note: An earlier version of this story erroneously reported that Karpal has four grandchildren. It has since been corrected. The error is much regretted.