A dead man is coming back to save the life of a convicted terrorist who is sentenced to death. The late B Raman, who died two years ago has come back to argue that the 1993 Bombay serial bomb blasts case convict Yakub Memon should not be hanged. Raman himself was heading the Pakistan desk of India's external spying agency Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) when Yakub Memon was brought to India in 1994.
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He has written an article for online portal www.rediff.com in 2007. But, he was hesitant to publish that. He had told the Reddiff editorial team not to publish it. Rediff has now published it after obtaining permission from his brother.
In the article Raman has written that “there is not an iota of doubt about the involvement of Yakub and other members of the family in the conspiracy and their cooperation with the ISI till July 1994. In normal circumstances, Yakub would have deserved the death penalty if one only took into consideration his conduct and role before July 1994. But if one also takes into consideration his conduct and role after he was informally picked up in Kathmandu, there is a strong case for having second thoughts about the suitability of the death penalty in the subsequent stages of the case”.
In his article, late Raman writes, "the prosecution was right in saying that Yakub was arrested in Old Delhi. Yakub was right in claiming that he was not arrested in Old Delhi. In July 1994, some weeks before my retirement, he was informally picked up in Kathmandu, with the help of the Nepal police, driven across Nepal to a town in Indian territory, flown to Delhi by an aircraft of the Aviation Research Centre and formally arrested in Old Delhi by the investigating authorities and taken into custody for interrogation. The entire operation was coordinated by me.”
Rediff editor Sheela Bhatt, in her background introduction to Raman's 2007 article writes, "when Yakub Memon was sentenced to death Mr Raman was in pain. He called me to share why it was very wrong on the part of the Indian establishment to allow Yakub Memon to die by decree of law. He was quite disturbed to see the deception by officers of the investigating agencies, in the Mumbai Courts and in higher courts, that he was once part of. On August 2, 2007, at 9.39 am, I got Raman's column in my inbox, written in bullet points and bold font, a style he was famous for. He sent it to me to publish in Rediff.com.”
She added, “I was delighted. But, with the attachment, he also added, "I wrote this, but I am having second thoughts. Don't use it. Others might escape as a result of this article if the higher court holds that the entire case has been vitiated as a result of the prosecution concealing a material fact from the sentencing court. R.' Then, he changed his mind again and told me on the phone that I could use the details in my report. Obviously, I found the details useful."”
By Premji
