During a television discussion soon after the announcement of the Ajmal Kasab verdict by the Bombay high court on Monday, my co-panelist, a survivor of those terrible hours on November 26, 2008, was asked: “Are you disappointed at the pace of the judgment?” The lady replied, in a firm voice: “No. We are a democracy and the due process of law must be followed”.

This is a welcome change from all those who complain that the legal process in 26/11 terror attacks case has taken far too much time. Of course, the issue of time is debatable considering that two courts have pronounced judgments in just two-and-a-half years on what is still a very emotionally-charged issue. The son of the policeman who arrested Kasab but lost his own life has said that nothing short of hanging the terrorist in a public place will serve the cause of justice. But that would be vengeance, not justice. Killing Kasab summarily will not bring the dead back, only satisfy our desire for bloody revenge.
The fact of the matter is that slow or not, the courts have examined all the evidence put before them and given their considered view. Indeed, the two Indians, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, have once again been found not guilty as co-conspirators. The proof collected by the Mumbai police — mainly hand-drawn maps — has been found inadequate to nail them. So while the police and the prosecutor are congratulating themselves about having prepared a fool-proof case against Kasab, they need to relook at the evidence they have about the other two. The Maharashtra state government wants to file an appeal in the Supreme Court, but if no new evidence is unearthed, it promises to be a futile exercise once again.
Coming back to Kasab, two courts have firmly said that his crime was the “rarest of rare” and hence death sentence is justified. But the high court has gone a step further and accused him of seven murders specifically, including those of the three senior police officers — chief of the Anti-Terrorism Squad Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte and Inspector Vijay Salaskar. The high court judge pointed out that Kasab had been a willful participant in the training given by his masters in Pakistan and no doubt, as it being continually repeated on our TV screens, the terrorist’s lack of remorse or regret must have weighed against him. As a highly trained operative, this lack of emotion can only be expected.
One more important milestone in the legal process has been achieved and Kasab can now appeal to the Supreme Court and then put up a mercy petition to the President. So it is quite likely that it will be a while before the death sentence, if it is upheld, is carried out.
But for the moment, in light of the high court’s crucial judgment, an important question needs to be asked: Is this some sort of closure? Closure for the victims, for the survivors, for Indians as a whole? Can we just feel satisfied at the fact that our legal system delivers justice and let it go at that? The answer is, no.
In the aftermath of those terrible 60 hours when the attention of the world was on Mumbai, the people of the city rose as one and demanded answers. They took out processions to express their outrage and anger. Tall promises were made by the establishment. At least three top politicians — Shivraj Patil, Vilasrao Deshmukh and R.R. Patil — lost their jobs. Assurances were given that not only would security systems be enhanced and toughened, but those responsible at all levels would be made accountable. An enquiry report was commissioned.
Two-and-a-half years on, what do we see? All three are back in office; Mr Deshmukh has gone from strength to strength while Mr R.R. Patil is sitting in Mantralaya. The report, which was not made public for a long time, turned out to be a dud, putting all the blame on the then police commissioner Hasan Ghafoor. Diplomatically we are still struggling with Pakistan to proceed against the masterminds of terror attacks. Why, even our best friend the United States was very reluctant to give us access to David Coleman Headley, who had done the original recce in Mumbai to prepare the dastardly plan. Had information on him been shared in advance, perhaps 26/11 could have been prevented. More details on this are available at http://www.propublica.org/article/mumbai-plot-fbi-was-warned-years-in-ad....
But why blame others when our own leaders have been lax? A bigger let down has been the lack of any comprehensive public enquiry into the whole episode. In the US, sustained pressure from families of the survivors of 9/11 attacks and citizens forced the government to establish a commission which called everyone before it, including sitting President George W. Bush and former President Bill Clinton. Over 1,000 witnesses were examined. Though the commission’s report was criticised for being too soft on the Bush administration, at least there was a document that was presented to the public. At the very least, holding such a commission contributes to some kind of social catharsis at a time when the people are hurting.
The Kasab case will now move forward and take its own legal course. Other terrorist incidents in the state (Mumbai train bombings of 2006, German Bakery case in Pune) are still being investigated and the perpetrators have not been brought to justice. Even the real brains behind 26/11 are out there somewhere. The citizen is within his rights to feel frustrated. Yet, the Kasab case shows that the system does work and that should give the citizen some hope, too.

Sidharth Bhatia is a senior journalist and commentator on current affairs based in Mumbai