Police Presence

Uniformed cops lurking in the shadows 

It did not rain today, but the streets were deserted. Police pickets had cropped up overnight with cops brandishing loaded carbines. For the first time, bags were searched at the Garden gate and ‘suspicious looking people’ were told by the watchman to step aside.
“What to do,” pleaded the watchman. “The police have told me to frisk everyone and inform them of anything suspicious. I am just following orders.”
Word had got around the Garden that the 1993 blasts’ convict, Yakub Memon had already been executed in Nagpur Central Jail at 5:45 a.m. Some swore by a Hindi TV channel which had supposedly “broken” the news. We all knew this was nothing but wild rumor, but no one argued.

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It was prudent to stay calm and listen in silence at these times when tension is rife.
“The judge who gave the death sentence must have had a hard time arriving at this decision,” said Nahid Khan while conducting the exercises. “It is not easy to send a man to the gallows.”
“Not really,” replied Jagmohan Papneja. “Judges work under set procedures and deliver a verdict after weighing all points of law.”
“I don’t understand law, but I have feelings,” said Mallika Kagzi.

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“Nobody should be given death penalty.”
“He was my professional colleague,” informed Bihari Milwani. “Yakub Memon was a CA. He was three years younger to me. Today's his birthday.”
Milwani was already talking in past tense. Suddenly three female cops entered the gate and were seen fanning out in the Garden. They zeroed in on a burqa-clad woman sitting on a bench close to where we used to exercise. For a long time they hovered about, obviously interrogating her and in effect, drawing a crowd around them.
When they had gone, Mallika Kagzi cut across the Garden to speak to the burqa-clad woman. Apparently, the cops had been tailing her from Adarsh Nagar petrol station and wanted to know who she was. They checked her handbag and on finding nothing incriminating, left her alone.
Yakub Memon was declared dead at 7:01 a.m. today, according to media reports.
Bihari Milwani:
It is very sad that a member of the noble profession of Chartered Accountancy indulged in harmful activities and was punished with the death penalty.