No formal letter received from poet Inqulab’s family: Sahitya Akademi

New Delhi, Dec 22 (IANS) A day after late Tamil poet Inqulab's family said it would accept this year's posthumously-conferred Sahitya Akademi Award, the Akademi said it hadn't received any formal letter and will take decision only after receiving it.

"We have just received a mail stating 'Inqulab Family and Trust' at the end of the note. Anyone can send a letter to us stating that they belong to Inqulab's family. There's is no authenticity of the mail, we don't know whether its genuine or not," an Akademi official told IANS.

The Akademi further added it will take a decision only when it receives a "proper hand written letter" from the family with legal proof that the sender is the poet's widow, son or daughter and reasons why they don't want to accept the award.

"There should be an official communication and then the executive board will take the required decision as it had decided the award for Inqulab," the official added.

Poet Inqulab who was born as Shahul Hameed, won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his collection of Tamil poems titled "Kaandhal Naatkal". But his family announced that they won't accept the award.

"My father was not running behind any award. He wrote expecting action by authorities against him and not expecting any award. He had told us that he will decline the Sahitya Akademi award, if he was given one," the late poet's son, S. Inqulab, had told IANS in Chennai on Thursday.

"My father would have certainly declined the award if he was alive today. If we accept the award now, it will be an insult to him," he added.

The Sahitya Akademi on Thursday announced its annual awards in 24 languages. Seven novels, five collections each of poetry and short stories, five works of literary criticism, a play and a book of essays were chosen for the award this year.