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 Selective
Justice in Tahiliyani’s Terror Court
By NM Sampathkumar Iyangar*
The
Milli Gazette
Special terror court judge ML Tahiliyani must be the
happiest man on earth today. During a hectic year of high-pressure work,
he has been hearing politically the most explosive court case in the short
post-colonial history of the Sub-continent. The onerous task over, he
deserves a blissful vacation during summer, having already secured a
meteoric rise. He can look forward to be rewarded with plump postings in
future, by whichever regime comes to power, for the ‘loyal’ service
rendered to the government.
The sense of relief Tahiliyani must be experiencing could be nothing less
than that of Gujarat’s POTA judge Sonia Gokani after she wrapped up the
Akshardham massacre case. Two suicide bombers had managed to kill over 30
people and injure near 100 in what was publicized as a crazy strike to
take revenge for the state-sponsored pogrom in 2002. Sonia too dispensed
‘justice’ after a fast track trial held in high security prison, with
access barred to ‘outsiders’, including media.
Everyone is aware that it was irrelevant what sentence Tahiliyani passed
on the main accused, presented as the only surviving member of the suicide
squad, supported by a meticulously manufactured propaganda in media. For a
trained and indoctrinated “baby-faced terrorist”, it should make no
difference whether he got death sentence on four counts and life on five
counts or the other way round.
Also immaterial is that the judge acquitted the Muslim youths, presented
by prosecution as key conspirators. The verdict is sure to go to the
higher courts and rot for decades. Even the acquitted ones will continue
to rot in jail on one pretext or the other, a routine occurrence in India.
They may as well get eliminated in one of those farcical encounters that
await youngsters branded as terrorists for demanding equal opportunities
to excel.
—
Gokani and Tahiliyani
— Dubious Proofs
— Gaping Holes
— Triple Integrity
— Message to Pakistan
Gokani and Tahiliyani:
Tahiliyani was, however, not as unabashed as the ‘honourable’ judge of
Gujarat. Gokani had readily bought the entire prosecution story, without
batting an eyelid. She convicted all the denizens presented by cops as
culprits, sentenced two of them to gallows and awarded jail sentences from
10 years to life-imprisonment. She never stopped to ask if the suicide
bombers could have been assigned the job by someone else. And why the
conspiracy, supposed to have been hatched in occupied Kashmir and Saudi
Arabia to take revenge for Gujarat pogrom, should target the particular
temple. It belonged to one of the bitterly feuding fragments of the
extremely wealthy Swaminarayan sect, enjoying heavy political clout.
In contrast, it came as surprise that Maharashtra’s Tahiliyani rejected
the cock and bull story implicating two co-accuseds. Faheem Ansari and
Sabauddin Ahmed had been made out to be the only Indians involved in the
conspiracy. The two had been picked up in 2008 in Lucknow, long before the
incident. Script-writers employed by security agencies had worked hard to
frame up the Muslim youths in the 26/11 carnage. The forces had killed all
the bombers except Ajmal Kasab, failing to capture them alive - a practice
that has become commonplace in India with obvious motives. Tahiliyani tore
into the evidence presented - some scribbled maps planted on the accused,
observing, “Google maps are better than this” and declared the framed up
duo as “blemish-free.” Interestingly, Sonia Gokani had no qualms to accept
even more laughable evidence submitted to damn the suspects.
However, Tahilyani, like Gokani, never thought it fit to inquire into
every other plausible motive behind the attack. He apparently endorsed the
charges made by the public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam who attacked Kasab for
two hours, describing him as “worse than a wild beast... Kasab is a
killing machine... and the orders for this machine came from Pakistan.”
But, he seemed to discount possibilities of “still worse wild beasts and
killing machines” holding high positions in India. That the state chief
minister was swiftly moved away from limelight and the central home
minister had to be unceremoniously sacked, obviously to cover up something
sinister, never crossed Tahiliyani’s head.
Dubious Proofs: The selective justice
of Tahilyani was limited to only the two Indian co-accused who were
acquitted of all charges due to lack of evidence. Tahiliyani did not
insist on clinching evidence, however, with respect to the alleged
“cross-border conspirators”, including Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur-Rahman
Lakhvi. He had no hesitation to buy ‘proofs’ submitted by the prosecution
on their role. “The 20 wanted accused were involved in hatching the
conspiracy and preparations and training of the 10 terrorists,” the judge
said on the remaining co-accused who could not even be produced in court.
Accepting the ‘handler’ theory forwarded by the Indian government, the
judge simply ignored the fact that Hafiz Saeed had to be set free after
Lahore High Court quashed Pakistan government’s action of imprisoning him.
The government, quivering at the arrant threat of military action from the
behemoth across the border, had framed him, based on ‘dossiers’ from New
Delhi. The upright judiciary, however, would not bend to deny fundamental
rights to the citizen, based on the ‘hearsay’ evidence provided to them.
The Pakistani Supreme Court too saw no reason to intervene, despite
repeated threats of war from India.
As for the sole scapegoat in what smacks of a sinister conspiracy to
provoke yet another catastrophic war in the region, the court held,
“Considering the circumstances, the confession [of Kasab] is found to be
voluntary.”
To recall the court proceedings, the confession made by the illiterate
accused had made him look like a genius. It made him out to be an expert
in project management tools like MicrosoftProject although he had just
crossed 20. He was not just a gunman employed by others but apparently
could track the mission in minute details! Weirdly, every bit of the
‘confession’ in court precisely matched the 11,000-page chargesheet
scripted meticulously by the cops over eight months for the trial.
Immediately after the ‘confession’ in open court, the Special Public
Prosecutor termed it as a “victory of truth.” He exulted that he had
always maintained that Kasab was a great actor. The judge, however, did
not consider him as a ‘great actor’ when he retracted his confession, once
again in public!
Gaping Holes: The final Tahiliyani
verdict is silent about gaping holes in the prosecution tale. According to
the story crafted, higher-ups in Pakistan had sponsored Kashmir-based
militants to enter India to commit the heinous terror job -- as if it
could have happened without involvement of the higher-ups in India!
A spokesman of JUD, which is accused by Indian rulers as the front of the
banned Lashkar group, took strong exception to the naming of Hafiz Saeed
and Lakhvi. He recalled: “Right after the Mumbai attacks, Saeed
categorically denied any involvement of his organization in a press
conference held the next day” and put the record straight: “After careful
review and diligent hearings, a full bench of the Lahore High Court
decided that all the accusations against Saeed were baseless.”
India’s insistence of making a scapegoat of JUD and its chief -- an
injustice that would never be forgiven by the general public -- as the
precondition to end hostilities is quite understandable. The government
apparently thinks war as the only option to divert frustrated people’s
attention from rapidly climbing prices and widening disparity among the
population due to lopsided economic policies.
The terror judge has apparently been forgiven by Home Minister P
Chidambaram for not convicting the two ‘conspirators’ whom his cops had
framed up in the case. Expressing glee at the verdict, he told an obliging
propagandist of the regime, “The court has convicted a certain accused. It
also acquitted two accused. That shows the independence, fearlessness and
integrity of the court.” He gave full marks to the prosecution for
securing judicial stamp for the designs of the authorities to keep the
peace process with Pakistan in limbo, saying, “A criminal trial can only
proceed step by step and within a year, the prosecution has been able to
get conviction.”
Triple Integrity: But the truth
slipped out of his mouth when he added, “The trial UNDERMINES the fact
that India is a country governed by rule of law!” He apparently meant
“underlines the fact”. The entire media reported his articulation based on
a hand out from PTI, India’s demi-official news agency, without
correction. That was because the suave Harvard scholar is known for his
command over the English language and could not have missed the difference
between ‘underlining’ and ‘undermining’. But, his highly demanding role as
virtual War Minister since the Mumbai carnage, it appeared, has taken a
toll on his mastery over English. It was apparently another such language
error when he confused ‘integrity’ with ‘impotence’.
Actually, the triple ‘integrity’ of the Indian system came out for all to
see in the explanation Tahiliyani provided for the rationale to treat the
confessional statement as genuine, while trashing the retraction. He said:
“The magistrate had given him [Kasab] 72 hours to think about it [his
willingness to record a confession]. The HC provides that the accused [who
wants to confess before a magistrate] should be given 24 hours. The
magistrate gave him much more time!”
Message to Pakistan: Chidambaram
then grandly declared, “If the terrorists are apprehended, we will be able
to bring them to justice and give them exemplary punishment.” Obviously,
it was intended for his enemies, marginalized and downtrodden masses of
the country. That they should not bank on the judiciary when branded as
“terrorists” and crushed with brute force if they protested against
injustice was implicit in the warning.
If at all there was a message to Pakistan in the stern warning -- “The
judgment is a message to Pakistan that they should not export terror to
India” -- it was this: “Pakistani politicos must take training from Indian
counterparts how to make the judiciary dance to the tunes of rulers! Our
spineless courts are capable of damning the accused solely based on what
was supposed to have been confessed secretly even if he refutes it in
court!”
If Pak learns from the great democracy dreaming of lording over the whole
region as a superpower, the judges of that country would accept diktats
from prosecution just before delivering verdict, even after wrapping up
the trial. They would not dare to quash tyrannical actions of the State.
They would not sack defence lawyers unceremoniously if they take their job
seriously and become an embarrassment to the prosecutor. Junior judges can
be made to indirectly pass strictures against higher courts in other
countries by naming persons acquitted by them after due process of law!
*The author is Ahmedabad-based policy analyst
Source: The Milli Gazette, 16-31 May 2010
This article appeared on
page no. 14 of the 16-31 May 2010 print edition of The Milli Gazette.
Subscribers of print edition The Milli Gazette are now reading the 1-15 June
2010 issue
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