K P Raghuvanshi, former chief of elite Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) still remembers that fateful evening vividly nine years since seven powerful blasts rattled the metropolis killing 188 innocent lives and sending over 700 to various hospitals. The first chief of the counter-terrorism agency, Raguvanshi had experienced it all, complex probe modalities, hard-nut brainwashed souls who orchestrated the explosions, criticism from ‘social activists’ and at times media during all these years. On Wednesday, he had the last smile though when a MCOCA court in Mumbai awarded life sentence to five of the convicts and sending other to prison for life. During an interview with Joydeep R Ray of Free Press Journal, the former IPS talks about belief, philosophy, rain and challenges during the course of the investigation.
Q: I am sure you are happy with the judgement pronounced by the special court. But there had been several allegations against the investigators for pressurising accused persons to give statements against their wills, violation of human rights during probe and charging innocent people for the blasts. How do you defend yourself?
A: They kept leveling allegations against the police during all the time since their arrests and trial process. I wonder, why they did not mention all these whenever they were produced before magistrates during they being in ATS custody—all the accused were regularly produced before magistrates where they could have mentioned their problems with me or my men. They were regularly taken to doctors, we even arranged to send high-level medical teams for their check-up. Actually, for this type of criminals or terrorists, it now has become a phenomenon to level allegations against probe agencies to create pressure on the men in uniform. In this particular case, they even talked about reaching out to the victims’ families during last few weeks—something which they did not do in last nine years! Suddenly they thought of how those families who lost their people in the blasts need to be talked to!
Q: Now some of the convicts are seeking leniency on the ground of being old, educated or even coming from sound family background. Is it something new that happened this time?
A: In a way, it is. But it is not a case about individuals. It is about their philosophy, belief. I think individuals did not let such a heinous crime to take place, it is collective and certain groups, people who want to terrorise not one or hundred Indians, but India as a whole. How can you have sympathy towards them?
Q: What is your take on judicial process in reference to this case in particular?
A: In spite of all the strategies applied by the guilty ones including emotional and sentimental ploys, the judge after examining all the evidence, pros and cons, sentenced them. It has been a challenge not only for us, but the judicial system as well. I understand, they will be approaching the higher courts now but I am sure, we had prepared a water-tight case against them years back contrary to all the criticisms we had to face.
Q: The biggest challenge during the probe?
A: Minutes since the seven blasts ripped apart the city and the ever-busy mass transit system, it started raining heavily. But still there had not been a single undetonated bomb which we could find to get a clue of what kind of explosives were used. This was very rare. In every such serial blasts, be it at Bali, Surat or even London, there always had been one or few undetonated bombs which helped probe teams to start investigating and also take preventive measures. Heavy rain also washed away all the possible clues and amid huge chaos, we started the investigation from zero with the help of three forensic teams. Joining the dots in this case was the biggest challenge. We did not sleep for months.
