On 3/5/2010 special sessions judge M. L. Tahaliyani declared Ajmal Kasab guilty of 86 charges of 26/11 attack. Sentencing to follow later. Two other accused, Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed, were acquitted.
The judgment could have come early if the chargesheet against Ajmal Kasab was restricted to the crimes he committed instead of it being a chargesheet including all crimes connected to 26/11. Nine terrorists connected to 26/11 were dead, the conspirators were in Pakistan and Pakistan was not willing to hand over them to India. Having a chargesheet over 10,000 pages and examining witnesses not connected to Ajmal Kasab’s crimes prolonged the trial. There could have been separate chargesheets for different crimes of 26/11 attack.
Trials for terrorism and waging war against the state should be different from other trial. The state should not provide the lawyers. The accused should hire the lawyers themselves. If the accused are unable to hire lawyers trials should proceed without defence lawyers.
Tag: Phone Tapping
Crime and phone tapping
Outlook has come out with second instalment on telephone tapping. This includes a bureaucrat who wanted Rs.8 crores bribe, a minister in UP who wanted a bribe from engineer and the wife of an air vice marshal who talked to a beautician about prostitution racket.
Corrupt people whose conversations have been tapped must be exposed. Recently there have been some cases of high profile corruption. Two bureaucrats in India’s home ministry have been arrested. One of them took bribes for approving bulletproof jackets. Head of MCI who took bribes to grant recognition to medical colleges has been arrested. Three persons in CRPF who sold arms and ammunition to Naxals have been arrested. Naxals had used those arms and ammunition against CRPF jawans in Dantewada.
Politicians and phone tapping
On 23/4/2010 Outlook reported that phones of four politicians were tapped. They were Digvijay Singh, Nitish Kumar, Prakash Karat and Sharad Pawar. The period stretched from February 2007 to April 2010. Vinod Mehta, editor of Outlook, claimed his sources were impeccable.
It is difficult to believe that over four years and two months phones of only four politicians were tapped. Either the sources did not give full information to Vinod Mehta or Vinod Mehta had held back some information.