Why the Yakub case made me proud of our judicial system

I had slept at 11 last night, after following the Yakub story all day and evening. When I woke up at 6.30 in the morning today, my hands instantly looked for my mobile – to see what happened of the case. The notifications from news apps told me the court had rejected his final plea at 5.00 am; he was to be hanged between 6-7.00 am. I heaved a sigh – it was a sigh of pride at our judicial and legal system (despite all the shortcomings) that put absence of precedence aside to hear a convict’s last ditch effort to save his life, in the middle of the night.

I was proud of the fact that even terrorists get every chance to prove their innocence in the courts of this country. When they fail to prove it, they have a chance to seek mercy at more than one door. That, if rejected mercy, their last wishes are respected, they are provided with whatever they would like to eat, their family is informed and their bodies given away to their kin for the last rites.

To all those crying hoarse that humanity has been shamed, humanity doesn’t mean sparing dastardly terrorists appropriate punishment. Humanity means treating these terrorists like humans even as the punishment is being meted out to them.

About an eye for an eye. If we really believed in that, Yakub Memon would have been hanged at some street instead of being able to employ the best of lawyers who managed to drag his case for over 20 years. The same courts that sent Memon to gallows acquitted some of his relatives and gave lifers to others. And the court said, “The bomb planters were given lifer. If we had given the same punishment to the conspirator, it would have been injustice to the former.” So, think before you challenge the wisdom of this country’s courts!

Just an aside - by this ‘humanity’ logic, the US shoudn’t have killed Osama Bin Laden – that too in his own house! Chota sa terrorist hi to tha wo bechara, aise nahi marna chahiye tha!

And, as far as death penalty is concerned, as long as it is part of our constitution, it will be meted out in the rarest of rare cases. I you really cared about abolishing death penalty, you should have started fighting in 2007 when the death penalty was pronounced; not two days before the hanging was to take place!

About his religion, we are told terror has no religion. Need I say more?

Why do terrorists need to be killed? They need to be killed because they are a constant security threat, even when in jail. You never know when another IC 814 will be organized to take them back.

If I were a teenager watching this drama over the last week, it would have been difficult for me to not sympathise with Memon. Thanks to all the so-called secular, conscience-stricken, ‘human’ beings in this country who have made a terrorist, a martyr.