NEW DELHI - On November 26, as India mourned those who were killed last year in
the Mumbai massacre - the most audacious terror attack on its soil - the somber
occasion also spotlighted the ongoing trial of the tragedy's lone surviving
Pakistani gunman, Mohammed Ajmal Amir, alias Kasab.
Kasab, 21, and nine AK-47-brandishing young men, unleashed terror in India's
financial capital over four days last November. They pumped bullets into 166
people, targeted two luxury hotels, a Jewish center, a popular cafe, a hospital
and the main railway terminal, and destroyed property worth billions of
dollars.
Kasab is on trial with two Indian co-defendants accused of helping plot the
attacks on Mumbai. They have been charged with 12
criminal counts, including murder and waging war against India. If convicted,
all three could face the death penalty.
Public anger was such that, when Kasab's trial began in April in a special
Mumbai court, some questioned whether he should even be given a trial.
However, as legal experts pointed out at the time, Articles 21 and 22 of the
constitution guarantee the right to life and liberty to all persons, whether
citizens of India or foreigners. In other words, a person arrested under Indian
criminal law "has the right to consult and be defended by a lawyer of his
choice".
According to Supreme Court lawyer and Delhi-based human-rights activist, Kamini
Jaiswal, "India is a well-respected democracy which doesn't believe in kangaroo
courts. So it is keen to be seen in this light - as a nation which is doing
full justice to Kasab. We're also sensitive to the fact that this is a crucial
case for our human-rights record, with the whole world's eyes glued to it."
The government has also gone out of its way to put the case on the fast track,
considering the enormity of the charges. But despite that, the trial has been a
challenge for the judiciary and jail authorities, and it faces growing domestic
criticism.
Many Indians are angered at the cost of keeping Kasab in detention, even though
his input could prove crucial in implicating those involved in the attacks.
According to The Times of India, Mumbai's state government of Maharashtra has
spent some US$6.4 million on Kasab's upkeep.
Detained in a specially built isolated cell in a high-security prison, Kasab is
under 24-hour guard by the Indo-Tibetan Border Security Force. The expensive
cell inside Arthur Road jail, in central Mumbai, is designed to be virtually
impregnable. Another bullet-proof cell has been created inside JJ Hospital,
where Kasab has been treated by some 20 doctors over the past year.
Although he confessed and pled guilty in July, Kasab's trial continues to be
delayed by bizarre legal twists and turns. When he made his confession, the
court said his statement and plea were to be taken on record and considered at
an appropriate stage as evidence, but that the trial was to continue.
Indian law doesn't accept mid-trial confessions, as the pressures of being on
trial can lead people to confess, a lawyer told Asia Times Online. He added
that in this situation, the trial continues to take its own course and that the
court will still hear more witnesses before a verdict is reached.
This week, Judge M L Tahaliyani sacked Kasab's defense counsel, Abbas Kazmi,
for "non-cooperation", appointing Kazmi's assistant, K P Pawar, in his place.
But this was not the first problems the court has had difficulties with Kasab's
lawyers.
Before the trial, no Indian lawyer was keen to defend Kasab, compelling the
court to appoint one from the state legal aid committee. Anjali Waghmare was
chosen for the onerous task, but was soon disqualified on grounds that she was
also representing some of the victims. The mantle then fell on Kazmi.
In the meantime, Kasab kept public interest alive in his case with his
irreverent courtroom behavior - taunting lawyers, mocking the judge and feting
the media. His antics led the public prosecutor to call him an "actor par
excellence", while the judge reprimanded him.
A few weeks into the trial, Kasab dropped a bombshell by demanding that he be
tried in an international court as he had "no faith in the Indian justice
system". However, Tahaliyani dismissed the plea as a delaying tactic to thwart
court proceedings.
Kasab's confession was another bombshell, especially when he made a passionate
plea for a swift death sentence. "Hang me, please. I admit my crime," he said,
before giving a chilling account of his apparent part in the well-orchestrated
attacks.
He explained his modus operandi in targeting the two luxury hotels and
other Mumbai spots. All his team members, disclosed Kasab, carried automatic
guns, grenades and explosives. He also named four members of the Pakistani
militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, whom he said saw off the gunmen from the
Pakistani port city of Karachi before they headed for Mumbai.
Kasab's motive was, he said, "to get rich quick". He elaborated how his
impoverished family in Pakistan's Faridkot region pushed him into becoming a
trained thief that finally turned to terrorism. He said he was introduced to
jihadis in his quest to receive "specialist" training.
He laid bare the plan of how he and comrades sneaked into Mumbai by sea and
went on a killing spree, a bloody saga that only ended when security forces
killed all but him.
With such graphic descriptions of the attack, Pakistan - which had initially
denied that Kasab was its citizen - had no option but admit the truth. This
acknowledgement not only unambiguously exposed the designs of elements in
Pakistan to abet terrorism against India, it also helped put global pressure on
Islamabad to dismantle the terror groups that planned to target India.
Kasab's trial is into its eighth month. But in India's notoriously slow legal
system, this is fast. A staggering backlog of civil and criminal cases clog
India's courts. According to figures released by the Indian Supreme Court last
year, India has a backlog of 29.2 million cases across hundreds of subordinate
state-level courts, 21 high courts and the Supreme Court. Out of this number,
over 25.4 million cases are pending in subordinate courts, 3.7 million in
various high courts while the Supreme Court has 45,887 cases awaiting justice.
According to a report by the Law Commission of India, India's
population-to-judge ratio is one of the lowest in the world. While the United
States and Britain have about 150 judges for every million of its population,
India has only 10 judges for the same number.
In Kasab's case, over 250 witnesses have been called by the prosecution,
including survivors, witnesses, relatives of victims, policemen, foreign
nationals, Indian officials and detectives from the US Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
Legal experts now say the trials will soon reach a conclusion, with just a
handful of witnesses left to take the stand. Verdicts are also likely to be
pronounced on Kasab's two co-accused - Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed.
However, this may not be the end of the matter, given the way the system can
work. The Supreme Court sentenced Afzal Guru to death in 2004 for his role in
an attack on India's parliament in 2001. That decision was stayed and his
clemency petition is still unresolved.
Neeta Lal is a widely published writer/commentator who contributes to
many reputed national and international print and Internet publications.
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