There are laws and then there are laws

Did you know that the captured militant has not been charged under MCOCA?

Arrested Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Kasab completes two weeks in the custody of Mumbai police on Thursday. However, though he has been booked under ordinary laws such as the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Arms Act and the Explosives Act-all of which allow the police a maximum of only 14 days to interrogate a suspect-Kasab's interrogation is unlikely to end any time soon. This is so because the crime branch plans to seek extension of Kasab's custody in each of the cases he has been booked under.

It is only under special laws such as the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) that police get 30 days to interrogate an accused and six months to file a chargesheet. However, MCOCA has not yet been applied in this case. [link]

So, how does the Police intend to keep him in custody? Simply by finding a small loophole:

Kasab will be produced before a magistrate on Thursday when his custody in the CST firing case registered with the Azad Nagar police station ends. The police is likely to request the magistrate to hand him over to the crime branch again in connection with any one of the 11 other cases. Using this tactic, police can technically extend Kasab's custody for at least 154 days.

This is what we call too clever by half. The implications are grave. Meanwhile lawyers are refusing to represent the militant.

The thin layer of credibility that the Indian Government has built up against furious backpedaling by Pakistani authorities backed by the Kabuki theater consisting of Pakistani media, army and military-industrial complex is contingent upon this man being alive. Yet the Indian media seems a little too eager to get him hanged at the earliest.

This man has expressed remorse and unabashedly blamed the hideous militants for brainwashing him. Yet he will probably be hanged by an over zealous media in what would amount to a miscarriage of justice.

But we won't hang another man, a much older one, one that was found guilty by the highest court after due process of law. A man who was a surrendered terrorist before being charged for the offense in question, conspiring to attack the Indian parliament. A man who till this day has not expressed remorse for his actions.

We won't charge Ajmal Amir under MCOCA that enables the authorities to hold him with a clean conscience, instead resorting to an underhand tactic not morally much distinct from our neighbors next door.

We won't even treat him as an enemy combatant, which is constitutionally the prudent thing to do under the circumstances. Simply because we are the devotees of the latest God Obama, whose election promises discourage such practices.

We are illegally confining this man and massively jeopardizing our diplomatic efforts, which we have convinced ourselves is the only option we have.

It is no wonder Pakistan is showing us their middle finger. They know where we keep ours firmly embedded.