“Return of the Memons: A Pyrrhic Victory” continues…

She was arrested on arrival. But nonetheless she was above the moon meeting her husband Yaqub, who wept with joy seeing his month old daughter.

My responsibility was more or less over. The mission had succeeded and I too couldn’t believe that I had pulled it off. I had able officers to follow up on investigation and submit a charge-sheet against the Memons including Yaqub. The investigating team was reminded that the Memons be treated as per the evidence against them and no one should get the impression that there had been a deal between them and the CBI. Truth be told, there was no deal whatsoever.

The wheels of justice rolled slowly but surely to its inexorable conclusion, as the trial in the serial blasts of Bombay progressed. Evidence on record against Yaqub and some of his family members were overwhelming and irrefutable. Twenty years down the line, after protracted legal proceedings, Yaqub was sentenced to death; his father Abdul Razzaq died in custody; Rubina, Essa and Yusuf were given life sentence. Rahin, Suleiman and Yaqub’s mother Hanifa were, however, acquitted.

The main perpetrator of the crime Tiger Memon, as per intelligence inputs, leads a merry life with his wife and children in Karachi, as do his brother Ayub and Ayub’s family. Reportedly, both Tiger and Ayub are engaged in flourishing and diverse business ventures in Karachi, make good money, and lead comfortable lives enjoying state patronage of the Government of Pakistan. Once in a while we also hear of his planning terror attacks in India with groups like Lashkar e Taiba. Inscrutable as the ways of Providence are, Yaqub is on death-row in his country, awaiting his turn to be hanged.

Disclaimer: This narrative in no way wishes to suggest the innocence or culpability of the Memons including Yaqub. That issue stands settled by the highest court of the country. It only attempts to tell the story of CBI’s efforts to arrest absconders in serial blasts case of Mumbai that rocked the city on March 12, 1993.