Recently judgment was delivered on the Bombay Blasts Case as it is referred because the city had its old name when those unfortunate incidents took place. Many things have changed in these 13 years, the city for one has got a new name Mumbai; powers have changed hands a couple of times in the state. Dawood Ibrahim the prime accused in the case fled from India soon after with his family and all the key members of his gang to Gulf and some are said to be presently residing in Pakistan. What perhaps hasn’t changed is India and its criminal justice system, the long delays happening in the courtroom, witnesses being examined and the countless span of time the victims have to wait in the hope of justice. There is a famous saying “Justice delayed is justice denied”. It took 13 years to deliver sentences in one of the most high profile cases in the history of independent India.
The incident which had shocked the country had the recipes of a Bollywood movie and even a superstar among the suspects. A few books have been written on this incident and even a movie made which fell into controversy even before it was released. Several hours of news content has been dedicated to asses the progress of the case. But apart from a key member Abu Salem who split from Dawood’s gang or D Company as it is referred most of the key suspects such as Dawood, his younger brother Anees and the planner of the bombings Tiger Memon remain outside India in their safe hideouts.
The questions here arises is can the administration and the judicial system claim to have made justice by sentencing only those people who planted and helped in bringing those explosives to the city. Even if yes what took so long in path to justice in a case concerning the country’s national security. The scale of the blasts gave us clear indications that this was planned months in advance and was a handy work of the D Company the most feared of the underworld gang in the with the logistic support coming from the other side of the border.
The accused that have been served the sentences are only the ground people who have had enough trauma during this period when the case alone ran for 13 years. The point here is that these people deserve the rigorous punishment for their acts, but hasn’t the case been dragged too far over a decade where some of the accused did not live to the day sentences were being served. Doesn’t this send strong signals to those people sitting both inside and outside the border that there are several loop holes in the Indian Judiciary?
So can we really say that judgement has been delivered in the Bombay Bomb Blast case and does this carry any meaning to those families who lost their loved ones in that madness which happened when internet was not even a known medium. That for me is a fraction too long.
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