Justice served? No, not really

Yakub Memon was hanged on his 53rd birthday, on July 30th, for being a part of the group which orchestrated the 1993 bomb blasts in Mumbai which killed around 260 people and injuring 700. 

Many across the nation are lauding the SC decision to hang Memon in order to get justice for the lives lost in the blasts and to 'set an example, a message which would be sent across Pakistan.'

Going back to where it all began from, the deadly blasts were the brainchild and handiwork of Dawood Ibrahim and Mushtaq Memon (Yakub's brother - known more as Tiger Memon), and the involvement of Pakistan's ISI is also alleged. 

The blasts were planned as a relation to the killings of Muslims ensued by the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya. The riots killed over 900 people and injured many more. The first question that arises is that why was no justice asked in this case. So many people were killed, irrespective of their religion, caste, creed - Indian were killed. 

In 2006, of the seven members of the Memon family, Court pronounced four guilty, acquitted three. 12 convicts including Yakub were awarded death penalty while 20 were given life sentence. In 2013, except for Yakub, SC commuted the remaining 10 convicts' death penalty to life imprisonment. After the sudden hanging of Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru for their crimes, awarding death penalty to Memon is something to raise eyebrows on. Memon's case will be taken by the non-Hindus to be an attack on them. 

One of the reasons that Yakub was convicted for was his involvement in the conspiracy. But so were other members whose death sentences were later commuted. Are they not equally guilty? If their sentences could have been reduced, so could Memon's be. The real conspirators are out there, maybe grinning over India's lackadaisical judicial system and lax police. It has been over two decades that the blast took place, our system  hasn't been able to catch the biggest fishes in the pond of underworld. Neither has justice been delivered, and if hanging Yakub is the way to deliver justice, it certainly is not. 

It is clear that he is being made the scapegoat for our inefficiency to be able to get to Tiger. 

It is clear that he is being targeted so that we have something to show to Pakistan. But the real question is will justice be served? 

Indian citizens and people involved in the law and police, of the likes of S.N. Thapa (former 

additional customs collector - now dead), R K Singh (Former assistant commissioner of customs), Mohammed Sultan Sayyed (former customs superintendent), Jaywant Gurav (former customs inspector), S S Talwadekar (former customs superintendent) were all found guilty and given RI. Nobody is questioning the judiciary's decision on that.

Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who was involved in the Delhi blasts of 1993 was given a shortened sentence after his life imprisonment was commuted. That was because he was suffering from schizophrenia and the court had taken too long to come up with a sentence. Sounds similar? These were the grounds on which initially Yakub Memon had filed a mercy plea, which ultimately was rejected.

Death penalty in the Nirbhaya case is justified because law in India awards death penalty in the 'rarest of the rare' cases. How does Yakub Memon fit the bill here? He does not, had he fit him and the other convicts who had their sentences commuted would have all fit.

The hanging of Memon, unfortunately, is like Afzal Guru's hanging, mired in a lot of political strategies. Hanging a man after delaying the case for over 22 years doesn't bring justice. Hanging a man who surrendered and helped police as an approver, in making a breakthrough in the Mumbai blasts, is a shame. He was not innocent, but Indian judiciary's decision has not been rapt. Doubts linger on every aspect of statements made by the police. Like Memon's claim that he came back to India with his family or if he was nabbed from an airport in Kathandu or from a railway station in Delhi. Talking about sending a message to Tiger and Dawood, or setting an example to act as a deterrent, or exemplifying the achievement of justice, Memon's death has failed to do any of it.

Memon tried a lot to save himself from the death penalty but it was not of any help.

Punish a man for his brother's crimes. That is what the Indian system did.