No assurance was given: CBI ex-chief

KV Prasad

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, JULY 30

Rejecting the argument and suggestion that Indian security agencies had given some kind of assurance to Mumbai bomb blast convict Yakub Memon, former CBI Director PC Sharma today asserted the premier investigating agency presented a thorough case securing maximum conviction.

Sharma, who headed the CBI between 2001 and 2003, said he had supervised the trial of the crucial case and at no point of time was there any assurance from the CBI to Yakub who was arrested in Nepal and brought to India to stand charges.

“There never was any assurance from the CBI or any statement from either him or his family that they had surrendered... in fact, neither he nor his counsel at any point of time during trial had made a statement to be examined as a witness that is permitted under Section 315 of the Criminal Procedure Code”, Sharma told The Tribune here today.

The former CBI chief’s remarks come in the wake of reports circulating on social media quoting an article by former RAW senior officer B Raman that Yakub did not deserve a death penalty considering the “mitigating circumstances” while emphasising there was no iota of doubt about his involvement in the blast conspiracy and in normal circumstances he would have deserved death penalty. Raman, who passed away a few years ago, coordinated Memon family’s return to India from Pakistan.

Emphasising the gravity of crime of Yakub, he said it was as much of him as anybody else. “The principle of criminal justice is based on crime and punishment. Punishment as per the gravity of offence and death penalty is provided in statute book.”