The Legal Rights Dilemma

Should Kasab get a Lawyer?

This debate has been raging on almost anywhere and everywhere I go. And it is not just since Anjali Waghmare was appointed as Kasab's Lawyer, even before that, many lawyers had said they wouldn't take up Kasab's case.

I was watching the news last night with my family and was just thinking, should a woman be targetted for simply doing her job?? That I mean for Anjali Waghmare. Shiv Sena is nothing but a bunch of morons who have got their nationalistic ideals all wrong.

But what has happened to us? Why do we agree to the no-lawyer-for-Kasab stand?

If my personal opinion is asked, I think Kasab deserves the right to a fair trial, even though he has confessed to his crime and it is almost certain that he would be awarded nothing less than the gallows. Why do people think that he should not get a lawyer and he should simply be hanged directly?

Tell me, have you not heard of Naxals or even murderous terrorists laying their arms vountarily, and some of them being reformed? I am not saying reform Kasab. If he showed any kind of genuine remorse, I would still think it would have been a good idea to do so.... on paper. But in reality, no we will not let him be reformed even if he wanted to, coz he was among the many terrorists who carried out a heinous crime. Fair enough.

My point is NOT about reforming here. My point is, every person deserves a right to fair trial, no matter how brutal his crime is. There is a system in civilised society (if we can call ourselves that) and it needs to be followed in executing justice. Yes, I agree it will take a lot of court's time and money, which can be better utilised in solving other cases pending since god knows when.

Not to mention the media circus it would create. Someone mentioned on a news channel that media should not hype it so much and create a circus out of it, and Kasab should be publicly lynched. Now, that would not generate any kind of hype, isnt it??

I might be naive in saying so that not everyone is born a criminal. Circumstances compel them to take dangerously wrong paths, but that does not absolve them of their crimes. They need to pay a price for the crime they committed and for that, a proper system is the need of the hour. The rule of the mob isn't such a great idea. If we let them do it once, we open the door for such things to happen again.

A defence lawyer, in such a case, might best try to reduce the quantum of the sentence. Even she realises that it is already a lost battle, and yet she should do her duty. There is hardly any chance of Kasab getting anything less than a death sentence. But the sentence should be imparted in the way it is meant to be. 

Didn't we do that during the 1993 blasts? Weren't all the perpetrators caught and evidence collected against them? Wasn't there a proper trial then? Did they not have a defence lawyer?

Then why the exception for Kasab when you know he will be given nothing less than death?

Why attack an innocent lawyer for doing what the highest authority, the legal system, in your country has asked her to do?

Do you think a doctor will refrain from doing his duty, if he sees a patient with blood oozing out of every single location of his body? He knows the patient WILL not survive, but he will still give him the basic first aid.

I am not defending Kasab here. I think he deserves nothing less than a death penalty. But it should be in accordance with the legal system in the country. Yes, someone mentioned about Md.Afzal, the parliament attack conspirator,  and how he still has not been hanged.

I would jsut say that politics is such a sham in our country. They use terrorists on their agenda to degrade the other parties. But still, I would like Kasab properly tried in the court.

Maybe you would think I am delusional in my thinking and say my thoughts are not relevant. But these are purely my opinions on this matter. 

I SAY HE SHOULD GET A LAWYER AND A FAIR TRIAL. 

Surely would like to hear yours.