Mumbai gunman's fate poses quandary

Hannah Gardner, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 25. 2009 11:19PM UAE / November 25. 2009 7:19PM GMT

A resident hangs a billboard advocating Mohammed Ajmal Kasab’s execution outside a building near the Leopold Cafe, below, one of the sites targeted in last year’s siege on Mumbai. Punit Paranjpe / Reuters

MUMBAI // “Accused Number One” is flanked by five police officers as he is led from his cell to a wooden dock in a simple white courtroom inside Mumbai’s British-era Arthur Road Jail.

Skinny, barefoot, wearing a grubby white pyjama suit and sporting a wispy beard, the man slumped in his chair bears little resemblance to the smiling, muscular gunman who became the face of last year’s audacious terrorist attacks on Mumbai when images emerged of him coolly strolling through the city’s busiest railway terminal toting an AK-47.

But the figure in the dock and the person in the photos are one and the same, and, as the single surviving gunman from the attacks – which took place ago a year today – Mohammed Ajmal Kasab is being tried in a special court on 166 counts of murder and waging war against the Indian state.

Life in Mumbai has largely returned to normal since the night 10 men disembarked from a fishing trawler near Cuff Parade in South Mumbai and fanned out across the city to execute a series of commando-style attacks that paralysed the Indian financial capital for three days and left more than 170 people dead.

For the victims of the attacks and for the government, however, one issue remains unresolved – what should be done with Kasab, as he is simply known here?

The answer is clear for many Indians – the evidence against him is incontrovertible and he should be put to death with or without a trial.

Relatives of some of the victims and some political parties have even called for him to be publicly executed – something for which there is no precedent for India – and there are Facebook groups titled Ajmal Kasab should be Hanged ASAP and Hang Kasab in Public.

“The common man wants to see him hanged in a public place. He is the most hated man in India,” his lawyer Abbas Kazmi told The National. “And I am the second.”

The eight gunmen who captured the Taj and Oberoi hotels and a Jewish centre were shot dead by Indian security forces. A ninth terrorist who police say was trying to escape with Mr Kasab in a stolen Skoda was also killed when the police stopped the car at a roadblock.

Mr Kasab too would have been killed if it were not for the split second decision by one police officer, Sanjay Govilkar, to keep him alive for evidence.

That decision now presents India with a problem: how to balance its democratic traditions with its desire to take a harder line on terrorism – especially if it involves citizens of its arch-enemy Pakistan.

In the week after the attacks the decision was taken to try Mr Kasab – whose nationality has not yet been confirmed – in court.

Those in favour of a trial argued that no matter how heinous the crime or how detrimental to national security, India had always upheld the rule of law and allowed the judicial system to determine the punishment.

Even Nathuram Godse, who openly admitted to assassinating India’s independence leader, Mahatma Gandhi, was allowed to have a trial.

And Beant Singh, one of two Sikh bodyguards who assassinated Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1984, was also tried in court, despite there being multiple witnesses to the attack. The other guard was shot at the scene.

But many argued against allowing Mr Kasab the right to fight his case in court, saying that to do so was affording privilege to a man who was undeserving. Some suggested the government could use article 22(3) of the constitution to declare Mr Kasab an “enemy alien” and inter him without trial.

Mainly, however, people worried that India’s slothful courts would never deliver justice and a chance would be lost to send a message to would-be terrorists.

One year on, and many of the victims say their worst fears have come true.

When the trial began in April, the intention was to have it completed by the time the first anniversary of the attacks came around.

Instead, the court is still hearing witnesses for the prosecution and the defence has yet to make its case.

Both Mr Kazmi and the state prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam, now say this trial may not end until early next year, and though that is still fast compared to trials in lower profile cases, they both admit a final verdict could be years away because the case will almost certainly go to appeal.

Mr Nikam is determined to push for the death penalty on the basis that Mr Kasab and the other militants set out to murder indiscriminately on the orders of Lashkar-i-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group.

“Our law allows for the death penalty when a crime is of a serious nature. Kasab committed gruesome, cold-blooded murder,” Mr Nikam said.

“I will appeal if he is not given it. I have to do my best for the families of the victims.”

While most observers predict that this court will likely give Mr Kasab the death sentence – a punishment carried out by hanging in India – many say it will be years before he is executed, if indeed he ever is.

Indian courts regularly hand down the death penalty, but most of those sentenced live out their lives on death row and few people are ever executed.

The last person to be hanged in India was Dhananjoy Chatterjee in 2004, who was convicted 14 years earlier of raping and murdering a schoolgirl. Before that, the last execution was carried out in 1995.

Three people sentenced to death for their role in the assassination of the former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 are still alive in prison today.

Even if Mr Kasab was willing to accept a death sentence, as he was reported to have said in court, his case would still go to appeal automatically – first to the Bombay High Court and then to India’s Supreme Court – a process that can take several years.

After that, he can make a mercy petition to India’s president. But there are already 48 others on death row – some of whom were sentenced decades ago – whose mercy petitions would have to be heard before Mr Kasab’s.

If he was actually executed there would be the added concern that Pakistan might respond by killing its highest profile Indian citizen on death row – Sarabjit Singh.

Whatever the final outcome, it looks unlikely to satisfy many ordinary Indians – especially residents of Mumbai, judging by a straw poll conducted by The National last week.

“What are they trying to prove with this trial?” asked Maksud Patel, 22, a waiter who lost several of his colleagues during the 59-hour battle in the Taj Palace Hotel.

“The whole world knows what he did. It’s so frustrating.”

For others, however, the alternative is even worse to contemplate.

“Due process has to be gone through,” said Teesta Setalvad, head of Citizens for Peace and Justice, a Mumbai-based NGO that has worked with some of the victims of the attacks. “If we call ourselves a democracy, we can’t just call for a kangaroo court.”

foreign.desk@thenational.ae