His tragic and mysterious death helps to complicate the plot as it provokes the readers mind to consider his murder as an act of the Ice-candy-man's jealousy. .
Lenny's progression from childhood to adolescence coincides with India's independence from Britain's colonial rule and the partitioning of India and Pakistan. Suddenly Lenny finds her self caught amongst the chaos of the nation and her own home. We are given a detailed and insightful account of how she sees everything burning in the city. Due to her mothers excessive gasoline storage Lenny believes that it is her mother who is responsible for these fires. However, this is not the case. The actual motive behind the excessive storage of gasoline is that it is used to help transport "fallen women" back to their families.
One day, more importantly, a looting party of Muslims appears at Lenny's house, demanding the handover of two Hindu's that are meant to be living in the household. The first being Hari, the gardener, who has now converted to Islam and taken the name Himat Ali; the second being the Ayah. For Ayah's safety, when Imam Din was questioned by the mob he said that she had left for Amritsar. Suddenly amidst the crowd the Ice-candy-man emerges and walks up to Lenny. He asks Lenny if and where Ayah is hiding and promises not to harm her if she told him. With his cunning ways and his sugar coated words, he convinces Lenny to actually tell him the truth. Instantly we see a change in the Ice-candy-man's attitude. He betrays Lenny and his so called love by informing the mob of Ayah hiding in the house. .
Immediately readers sympathize with Ayah and are shocked at the Ice-candy-man's sinister betrayal. It is evident that the partition has psychologically traumatized Ice-candy-man. We are earlier told that his family was brutally murdered on a train arriving from India. Perhaps this is the cause of him having turned into such a heartless being.
