Ajmal Kasab, MP?

Anil_Athale

Colonel Anil Athale, a Chhatrapati Shivaji Fellow of the United Services Institute, is working on a project on internal security. He is also the coordinator of Pune-based think tank Inpad, affiliated with the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

As the winds of election swept the land of Bharat, also known as India and Hindustan, civil rights groups began a concerted campaign to free the innocent prisoner.

Two Cabinet Ministers, no less, took up cudgels on his behalf. The trial that was to begin in March was postponed as an application of the MCOCA or Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act was challenged. Since the new anti-terror law had still not been promulgated when the attack took place (the new act was hurriedly passed after the event), it could not be applied with retrospective effect.

Special: Mumbai terror attack

After much consultations in Mumbai, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab was charged with entering India without valid documents and the illegal possession of weapons. Since the maximum sentence for these crimes was less than 7 years imprisonment, the defence lawyers urged the court to release him on bail.

Even stranger things now began to happen. The bullets recovered from the bodies of people he was alleged to have killed did not match the weapons seized from him. It was rumoured that at the police station the original were replaced with 7.62 bullets, used by the police. It came as flash of memory that this very tactic was used in Jessica Lal murder case.

Terror Map, the Pakistani hand

All hell now broke lose. Various ‘secular’ organisations held massive demonstrations against the government, alleging bias against the minorities. With elections staring in its face, the government ordered a separate judicial probe to investigate the episode.

A justice who had successfully investigated the carnage aboard a train carrying kar sevaks was specially chosen, and he quickly gave his verdict that there was insufficient evidence against Kasab to link him to the train station massacre.

Pakistan had earlier gone back on its admission about Kasab’s nationality. A rumour began to do rounds that he was actually an Indian who was being framed by the police.

Meet the men who attacked Mumbai

A famous hundred year-old cold drink establishment from Mumbai came to his rescue, and at the cost of Rs 5000, a ration card in his name was produced as evidence. The cold drink firm had a reputation of helping its fellow citizens in need. Even in December 1999, it had managed to procure passports and other documents for the Pakistani Mujahideen who hijacked IC-814 flight from Kathmandu.

All these documents were leaked to a prominent TV channel and a crusading Internet portal which in an exclusive ‘breaking news’ brought out the truth that Kasab was an innocent Indian citizen being framed by communal forces.

Pakistan-based terror outfits

The trial in March showed the Indian justice system in its elements.

Since the television footage was not acceptable as evidence, the prosecution relied on eyewitnesses. One witness after another turned hostile, and it was widely rumoured that they got threatening calls from Dubai and Karachi ‘Bhais’.

Did a book predict Mumbai attack?

An odd witness who braved this threat was left speechless when an ace lawyer demolished his testimony on the ground that the witness herself was hiding behind a bench and it was night, so he could not possibly have seen the face of the attacker. The confession by Kasab was as good as useless since it was not admissible as evidence.

Just on the eve of general elections in April 2009, Ajmal Kasab was released from jail. A huge gathering outside the Arthur Road jail cheered lustily as Kasab, dressed in white kurta-pajama with a matching white cap walked out. The TV channels gushed over his good looks, and many found him rather cute.

There was a mad scramble amongst the political parties to woo Kasab to their side. Some offered him a party ticket to contest from South Mumbai constituency. The vote bank calculation was just right for him to win from there, opined the pundits. Kasab finally chose to ally with the ruling party and accompanied the Minister on election campaign. The polling over, most political analyst were veering round to the view that the ‘Kasab’ factor may well swing the election in favour of the secular parties.

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I woke up from my nightmare in a cold sweat.

Could this really happen? Or was it just a bad dream?

If a convicted person with links to 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts can aspire to a seat in parliament, why not Kasab? The Bollywood actor who accepted an AK 47 rifle (knowing fully well where it came from, and this was in 1993 when even the NSG Commandos did not have it) is not an exception.

What should we do?

Pappu Yadav, Shahabuddin, Shibu Soren, Anand Pratap, Raja Bhaiyya , Atique Ahamad, Lalu Yadav, Jayalalithaa, Navjot Singh Sidhu: the list of politicians with cases for serious offences against them, with their appeals pending forever in the Supreme Court, is long.

So why not Ajmal Kasab, MP?

The views expressed are that of the author's and not of Sify.com

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