Lambasting Lam

Bombay based advocate Kai B. N. Lam’s offer to represent arrested terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab has had serious repercussions. It has aroused ire in the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) as well as resulted in two unidentified young men vandalizing the lawyer’s apartment. But that has not deterred the determined democrat who had decided not to withdraw his offer or bow down to pressure from any quarter.

Lam, who has been a barrister at London’s famous Lincoln’s Inn and currently teaches at Government Law College and K. C. Law College, moved an application in a court on December 15, 2008 expressing his willingness to accept Kasab’s case, reported The Times of India (TOI) on December 16, 2008. His plea has been forwarded to a magistrate dealing with the case and Lam was awaiting a reply at time of writing. Emphasizing that he had no sympathy for terrorists, Lam informed TOI, "I just feel that every accused has a right to legal representation. It is not for the people or police to decide who is guilty as it is the court’s job.” He felt that Kasab had to be "treated humanely in accordance with the tenets of our democracy...

"I may be ostracized by some but that is something I care very little about. But I pray that physical attacks do not happen,” Lam expressed to TOI. His prayers remained unanswered. On the morning of December 17 two young men in their mid-20s barged into his Breach Candy apartment at 11 a.m., destroyed a statue, broke a lampshade, smashed two showcases and fled, reported TOI on December 18. "All this happened within two or three minutes while Lam was in the bathroom,” revealed assistant commissioner of police Sadashiv Patil. When asked why Lam had not been given police protection, Patil replied: "We did not know where he lived, but now we will provide him adequate protection.” Another senior police officer told TOI that these two youths "must have been bigots… We do not suspect the role of any political party.”

Kai B. N. Lam (top) and the terrorist (above) he has offered to represent

Dinshaw Mehta, BPP chairman, is quoted in the TOI as saying that "Kasab is not a person who needs to be represented by anyone. Why should Lam choose to do so? Terrorists should be denounced by everybody.” On December 18 the BPP’s public relations officer Godrej Dotivala issued a press release stating: "The chairman and trustees of the BPP emphatically state that the Parsi/Irani Zoroastrian community wishes to totally dissociate itself from barrister K. B. N. Lam who intends to take up the brief of the arrested Pakistani terrorist… (it further) unequivocally denounces, deprecates and disapproves the proposed action of Mr Lam and hopes that better sense will prevail and he will desist from any such proposed action…”

However, Lam justified his stand to Mid Day of December 18, 2008, saying that the public did not seem to think rationally. "I want to defend Kasab so that the court can pass a judgment on his crime. If we choose not to take up his case, he may be discharged or acquitted. In such a case, the police has to release him immediately.” To the Hindustan Times (HT) of December 20, 2008 Lam reiterated that he would not withdraw despite the pressure against him "so that the case can go ahead… I do not know whether I will be appointed or not but I will definitely not withdraw my application even though a number of people have suggested that I do so.”