Tuesday was, in a sense, a day of closure and redemption for Mumbai with the sentencing of Sanjay Dutt and three of his co-accused in the 1993 serial blasts case.
P D Kode’s decision to dismiss the actor’s probation plea and put him behind bars for six years under the Arms Act was the coup de grace in a nearly year-long judgment delivery process which saw him pronouncing a dozen death sentences and 20 life terms.
The celebrity status of the actor, who has already served 16 months behind bars, sustained a measure of public interest in the long-drawn case though fortunately did not influence its outcome.
Indeed, the judge must be commended for not letting either political pressure or public sympathy weigh on him while arriving at a final judgment.
Fourteen years is an inordinately long time for any trial, more so for a city like Mumbai which has been battered by bomb blasts of varying intensity since ’93.
With most of these cases still languishing in court, there is merit in the demand for a fast-track justice mechanism, especially for terror trials.
When justice is not seen to be done within a reasonable period of time, it can only embolden agents of terror, as Mumbai has discovered to its detriment. Equally important, public confidence in the justice delivery system can be seriously eroded.
With Kode having completed his onerous responsibility, it would be tempting to assume that the ’93 blasts case has ended.
However, the three masterminds of the bombings — Tiger Memon, Dawood Ibrahim and Mohammed Dossa — and their key henchmen are still absconding, indicative of political apathy as well as a lack of vigour in the investigation.
The action will now shift to the Supreme Court, where the fate of the death sentences will be decided. Dutt’s case will, in all probability, come up there as well.
There is one other matter of crucial significance which has come up on the sidelines of the blasts trial — the Srikrishna commission report on the Mumbai riots which immediately preceded the ’93 blasts.
Some of the accused and their family members have rightly asked why the recommendations of that report, which had indicted both police officials and Shiv Sena leaders, have not been implemented by successive governments.
Faced with growing resentment about the unequal treatment meted out to those involved in the riots and the bomb blasts, Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has now promised corrective action. Real closure can only be effected when the government is seen to be even-handed in meting out justice.
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