Veteran lawyer Ujjwal Nikam is a household name in India. Not just because he was the special public prosecutor in several high-profile terror cases, and most famously saw 26/11 convict Ajmal Kasab sent to the gallows, his prosecution of 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case accused Yakub Memon could see Tiger Memon’s brother and financial whiz, hang. Mr Nikam tells SHAHAB ANSARI, how the ’93 blasts case was his first case in Mumbai which he took up 14 years ago. Thus far, he has seen 100 accused convicted, of whom 12 — including Yakub — were sentenced to death, and why he believes that the only Memon who came back from the cold, should be put to death.
“In my opinion, despite the lapse of 22 years, Yakub Memon should be hanged. The reason our statute retains the death penalty is because it’s a tool of deterrence and his execution will serve to send out a strong message. The death penalty remains part of the law of the land, and it is awarded only in the rarest of rare cases. Not only should the magnitude and enormity of the crime be factored in, but so should the manner in which the accused acted while committing the crime, the impact (of the act) on the society and the cruelty of the act itself.
A criminal conspiracy was hatched. The Supreme Court has held Yakub responsible as one of the co-conspirators behind the bomb blasts of 1993. As a chartered accountant, he was managing the finances of the family and had distributed cash to the men who carried out the blasts.
Second, Yakub, his brother and the entire family left Mumbai a day ahead of the blasts. Thirdly, all members of the Memon family were also booked under TADA. But a number of them were acquitted while some who were convicted, were not given the death sentence by the TADA court. Those who planted the bombs were awarded the death sentence, but the Supreme Court reduced their punishment to life imprisonment. That clearly shows that the court made a distinction between those who acted under the direction of the criminal mastermind, and the mastermind himself.
The death sentence is handed out only after all the mitigating circumstances are taken into consideration. Since Yakub was found guilty of conspiracy and it was a crime that caused the death of hundreds of innocents, his case was found to be the ‘ rarest of rare’ cases and fit for death sentence.
While it is felt that the time spent on the case, reduces the impact of the sentence and gives the accused the opportunity to claim he has spent an inordinate amount of time behind bars and claim injustice on the grounds of the delay, even so, I believe that after so many years, this sentence will have an impact because the conspirator, who nearly always remains behind the curtains, will be held as responsible as those who executed the act of terror. Is it time to amend the law and set a time frame for such cases? Yes. But holding back the death penalty for the main financial facilitator of the ’93 blasts? No.
