How Avirook Sen's book on Aarushi shook my faith in India's judicial system

I am not saying he doesn't have the blood of hundreds on his hands by choosing to not report workings of his brother to the authorities in time. But hanging Yakub Memon will not bring closure to the families of the victims of the 1993 serial blasts.

Or so I would like to believe.

That despite living in kalyug, revenge isn't what drives most of us in our attempt to lessen the pain of losing a loved one. That the people of this country believe there's a difference between them and the heartless terrorists out there who will kill in the name of jihad and retaliation against preceding actions. That the country as one would raise its voice about how the authorities are letting them down morally by not upholding their reported promise to Memon at the time he was 'surrendering' - he would not be hanged in exchange for him and his family cooperating in all the investigations related to the blasts.

That a majority of this country has a conscience is one of the few beliefs I am left with after reading Avirook Sen's Aarushi, for the book has pulled me out of the mythical world where the police, the CBI and the judiciary stood for truth and justice.  

It is also thanks to Sen's book - based on findings submitted by the investigating teams to the courts - that I am not surprised the authorities did a U-turn in Memon's case and the Supreme Court chose to reject his plea. I would have agreed with how the developments panned out today until a couple of months ago; until I had read Aarushi, until I realised the dirty game of politics and personal faiths that drive those in the corridors of justice, instead of facts, evidence, honesty and conscience.

Here's what the book taught me:

1. The police is under-equipped and not trained to protect you: Most of us have read enough thrillers to know that a murder scene is off access lest evidence is tampered with. The UP police does not agree for the Talwars' neighbours, servants, family members and its own staff were moving in and out of the house right after the murder was reported. The inefficiency makes your blood boil when you get to know why Hemraj's body was discovered only a day later: because a constable forgot to get the door to the terrace opened as advised by his senior.

2. Don't get excited if a case is being transferred to CBI: The transfer of officials investigating the crime initially seem to have been done out of immediate need for an image correction rather than them being found lacking in anyway. That the investigator who took charge after chose to overlook the leads of the first team because that would mean work from the start and instead took the route of an "open and shut" case with the 'plausible' explanation of the father finding the daughter with the helper in the bedroom and thus having the motive begs you to question what's the need for such an agency in the country.

3. Don't hope for the Supreme Court or the High Court or a lawyer to come to your rescue: For they allow the CBI to introduce experts and witnesses that revise their statements, contradicting themselves each time, even seven years after the crime was committed. There are also some lawyers who would like to rush through the proceedings and not give the defence enough time to make their point because they are retiring in a month and had rather add a big-ticket case to their portfolio than provide justice to the victims.

4. India as a society needs much growing up to do. It was, is and will continue to be a patriarchal society: How then will you explain the irrevocable damage the UP Police and the CBI did to Aarushi's name by indulging in character assassination? And God help you if you are a strong woman, brave enough to control your emotions in public even after your daughter has died for this society will then label you as heartless and pin a murder on you for being stoic and resilient even if your world is crashing around you.

I am not comparing the two cases but having read that all the above factors led to two people who didn't commit the crime to be put behind bars, how should I believe that the courts carried out due diligence in computing the verdict on Memon? If it was about teaching another lesson, this time to terrorists, pray, then who is taking the guarantee that Memon's hanging will prevent such terror attacks in the future? What is it that we are trying to achieve with his death that a life sentence couldn't have? Worse, we are choosing to send the wrong message: Don't trust us, for we don't know how to keep our word.

PS: Do yourself a favour and pick up a copy of the book and burst that bubble you live in.