Click to play videoUnion Home Minister P Chidambaram seems to have, for the first time, outlined the UPA government’s stand on death penalty.
Talking about the fears that trial of Mumbai attack accused Ajmal Kasab could go the way of Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru’s, Chidamabaram told CNN-IBN in an exclusive interview that being on death row can sometimes be worse than hanging.
Chidambaram was responding to critics who have expressed fear that Kasab may be let off easy.
Afzal Guru's mercy petition is pending before the UPA government for the last three years.
CNN-IBN: Now that Kasab has confessed to the 26/11 atatcks, what you really have to say? Does it also establish in a way that the Pakistan's state actors are also involved in this?
Chidambaram: Not yet. Let's have a finding from the court as I suspected. What I gather Kasab admitted to many parts of the chargesheet and not all the parts. Logical consequences of the trial will have to continue and that's what the judge has ordered. I think that's the only course now.
CNN-IBN: I think the bigger picture is that we need to really nail Pakistan. We have been trying to prove that state actors of Pakistan have done this. How do we prove that?
Chidambaram: Why do we need proof for that as I have repeatedly said that an attack of this scale and magnitude cannot be launched without the support of state actors. That's something I am entitled to presume. It’s for Pakistan to prove the contrary.
CNN-IBN: If the wider conspiracies are to be established, do you think that Pakistan will have to extradite all those people involved in 26/11?
Chidambaram: I wonder if they will ever extradite anyone. They'll have to first try them, find them guilty and then punish them. I’ll be happy if Pakistan commences a trial of Lakhvi and others and takes it to its logical conclusion. Even that would be a major step forward.
CNN-IBN: Senior lawyer Harish Salve has told CNN-IBN that even if Kasab is sentenced, it would go the Afzal Guru way. Kasab may not be really hanged.
Chidambaram: That's a charge that's been made ad nauseum. Its been corrected several times. There are 28 cases of death row. Afzal Guru's no is 22. Let's first deal with the case. Remaining at a death row for several years is not a happy situation. In fact, prisoners on death row suffer more than prisoner who's hanged.
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