Terror Trial

Yesterday, Anjali Waghmare decided to represent sole captured terrorist responsible for the Mumbai 26/11 attacks. Did she do the right thing?

A couple of days back, the Supreme Court directed lawyer Anjali Waghmare to represent him in court. Of course, that was followed by attacks on her house by the Shiv Sainiks. "How can she defend a terrorist, who has caused us such loss" is their argument. While the people of Mumbai feel that he doesn't deserve a hearing, the law states otherwise. Every criminal has a right to a lawyer...only from India.

That's the catch! Kasab is not allowed a lawyer from his home country on the other side of the border. Previously, 3 individuals had shown interest in representing him, but the Shiv Sena activists got to them, and they backed out. Anjali Waghmare, wife of police officer, Ramesh Waghmare, has indeed done a heroic thing. In the face of all the opposition, she has braved forward, something the other 3 lawyers were not capable of.

I too am of the opinion that Kasab doesn't even deserve to live, much less a lawyer to represent him! But the Indian law is such. And I for one, will not ask for any exceptions to be added to this law, for I believe that with exceptions come loopholes, and the last thing we need is people finding more loopholes in our system.

At the end all I want is that he gets what's been coming to him for a long time, and by Anjali taking this step, he is just that much closer.