The lone survivor of the 26/11 terror attacks on Mumbai, Ajmal Amir Kasab has been sentenced to death today by the Special Court where he was being tried for the past 17 months under various cases of murder, terrorism, waging war against the country, attempt to murder etcetc..Judgement has been pronounced by the Judge but has the Justice been meted out...not so fast, say the legal experts stating that it might take years to hang Kasab.
Why??....well for one, the Death Sentence will have to be approved by the Bombay High Court and Kasab can challenge the verdict there or he can approach the Supreme Court directly challenging the verdict. Even if the apex court upholds the judgement, he can appeal for a legal review given the number of cases against him and that could take minimum 5 years according to the legal experts. And even if the Supreme Court still upholds the decision, he can then appeal for clemency to the President of India under Article 72, where he can appeal to convert it to Life Imprisonment or outright acquittal. As of today, there are about 52 clemency appeals already pending before the President of India. Afzal Guru, the mastermind of 2001 Parliamentry Attacks has also appealed for clemency and his appeal is yet to be approved by the Home Ministry in order to be sent to the Rashtrapati Bhavan for the final decision.
Ajmal Amir Kasab...a 22 year old terrorist who along with nine other gunmen attacked the city in various places like the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, The Taj Mahal Hotel, The Oberoi Trident Hotel, Cama Hospital, the Jewish praying centre Chhabad House and not to mention the indiscriminate firing on the streets, resulting in the death of 166 people and injuring several and in some cases crippling victims for life.
A Case in Point that comes to mind is that of Adolf Eichmann. Referred as "The Architect of Holocaust", a German Nazi officer who carried out the task of facilitating and managing the deportation of Jews to the extermination camps and ghettos in the German occupied Eastern Europe. He fled to Argentina and lived there in disguise after the war. He was abducted by the secret service of Israel, Mossad and was brought to Israel to face trial. Inspite of the huge protests from the Argentinian Government, the trial began on April 11, 1961 and after 14 weeks of testimony with almost 1,500 documents, 100 prosecution witnesses (90 of whom were concentration camp survivors) and dozens of defense depositions delivered by diplomatic couriers from 16 different countries, the court found Eichmann guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to death on Dec. 15, 1961. The Supreme Court rejected Eichmann's appeal on May 29, 1962 and the President Yitzhak Ben Zvi turned down his appeal for clemency on May 31, 1962. Eichmann was executed sometime after midnight on May 31,1962 and there were two men hired to pull the plug simultaeneously so no one would know for sure as to which one killed him. His body was burned and his ashes were scattered on the Mediterranean sea outside the territorial waters of Israel, so that there could be no memorial for him and no country could serve as his final resting place. This is the only civil execution ever carried out in Israel, a state that doesnt believe in death penalty.
Kasab's case has already taken 17 months. Currently, he is being kept in a special cell in Arthur Road Jail which was constructed at an estimated Rs.6 crores and about Rs. 2 crores are being daily spent on his security.
A lot of people are waiting for justice...people who have lost their loved ones....family of late Maj. Unni Krishnan, Widow of the Police officers killed are among them, and a lot of other innocent people who were subjected to this act of heinous terror....for once, cant the system proceed swiftly and justice be expedited...if these estimates are to be believed and it indeed takes 5-7 years...would it hold any meaning by then??...Wouldnt it be a mockery of our legal system??..
Is our system capable of same defiance and courage as that of Israel's??...
how come suffering induced because of suffering... this is not logic! this is way of the world.. this is the only logic that can be offered to support this.. i m not talking of this case only but all that our human history is strewn with..
ReplyDelete