"Return of the Memons: A Pyrrhic Victory" continues...

I followed every bit of news connected with the investigation with great interest, little knowing that within months I will myself have lots to do with the case.

I was promoted in June and moved from the Delhi Police on deputation as a Deputy Inspector General of Police in the Special Task Force, a new unit of the CBI. Created in May 1993, the STF was to take over the Bombay Bomb Blast Case from the Crime Branch of the Bombay Police. We waited for the first charge-sheet to be filed by the Bombay Police on the conclusion of their investigation of the case, before officially commencing our investigation. The first charge-sheet in the case was filed by the Bombay Police in December, 1993 and the STF of the CBI formally took over the case. In the months to come we filed fourteen Supplementary Charge-Sheets, arrested 29 absconding accused and followed the case in court tenaciously that concluded in the conviction of 100 out of 123 accused. Nearly 800 witnesses were examined. However, this is neither the story of our investigation nor an account of how we prosecuted the case in court. It is the untold story of our operation to get eight members of Tiger Memon’s
immediate family back to India to face trial in the Bombay Blast Case.

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It was about 10.30 am on July 24, 1994. The departure terminal of Tribhuvan International Airport at Kathmandu was bustling with activity. Karachi-bound passengers booked on a Lufthansa flight were rushing through their departure formalities. Yusuf Ahmad Mohammad, a 33-year-old handsome man holding a Pakistani passport, sporting a moustache and carefully trimmed beard, put his briefcase in the baggage scanner at the security check. A Head Constable, deployed at the baggage monitor, noticed an object resembling a handgun on the screen and
called Yusuf aside. He was asked to open the briefcase, which he did confidently. There was no handgun in the briefcase. Apparently, a few keys kept therein had given the false alarm.

To be continued...