Uneasy conscience: RAW officer B Raman, who brought back Yakub Memon from Nepal, opposed his death sentence

Rediff has posthumously published a sensational article written by former head of RAW's Pakistan Desk,  B Raman, the man who brought  back Yakub Memon to India.

B Raman wrote the article in 2007 after Yakub Memon was sentenced to death, and sent it to Sheela Bhatt of Rediff. He, however, changed his mind decided against publishing it.

B Raman believed that Yakub Memon was involved in the 1993 blasts; yet he was aghast when the younger Memon was sentenced to death. He even accused the security agencies and the prosecutor of holding back evidence, which would have made the court go soft on Yakub Memon .

The key question in Yakub Memon's case is did he return to India on his own or was he arrested at Old Delhi Railway station by the police. Even the court, which sentenced him to death, ridiculed the police claim that they had found him at the Railway station.

As B Raman writes, Yakub Memon was uncomfortable with the ISI and went to Nepal to consult a lawyer to discuss his plan of returning to India. The lawyer advised him to go back to Pakistan.

But the Nepal police picked up Yakub Memon on suspicion and drove him to the Indian border, from where he was flown to Delhi by RAW and was formally arrested.

B Raman is silent on the exact circumstances of Yakub Memon's arrest by the Nepal police; Yakub Memon and his lawyers have claimed that he intentionally drew the attention of the Nepal police at the Kathmandu airport by spilling the content of a bag, which had several fake passports. They also claim Yakub Memon came to India with a suitcase full of evidence against ISI when he returned.

Raman declines to corroborate or refute these claims, but is highly appreciative of Yakub Memon's cooperation after arrest. Getting him back was an intelligence coup and he played a useful role in building up India's case against Pakistan.

B Raman is also silent if Indian security agencies made any promise to Yakub Memon. But Sheela Bhatt, who had been interacting with B Raman suggests that there were assurances. As she writes while introducing Raman's article:

The promise given by serving officers who represent a sovereign State is not negotiable. The system should uphold what is promised by representatives of the sovereign State.
Raman says Indian security agencies did spectacular work in probing the Mumbai blasts. He says they could have distinguished themselves better if they had told the court, the truth about Yakub Memon and opposed his death penalty.

Ironically, that is a charge B Raman himself is guilty of. He did go close to making his stand public, but backed off fearing that his revelation would make an adverse impact on the case.

While Yakub Memon case is a blot on the record of the Indian security agencies, it is not hard to imagine that B Raman himself died in 2013 with an uneasy conscience.