'I was destined to be what I am today'

Rohini Salian, the advocate with the never-say-die attitude, on life after stepping down as chief public prosecutor and her ongoing battle for truth

Rohini Salian, the advocate with the never-say-die attitude, on life after stepping down as chief public prosecutor and her ongoing battle for truth

Rohini Salian is surrounded by books. Old, tattered, leather-bound volumes of legalese belonging to the Bar Association at the Sessions Court. Salian is playing librarian for a bit. No, not the kind that stamps your books and says 'Shh...' but the kind who keeps the library and its books in order. It's a holiday, and so the library is empty. Neither of us feels the need to be quiet which is good because Salian is quite talkative. Or maybe it's the need to share her ferocious idealism. "I'm sorting out the books into ones we need to keep here and removing the others," she says.

Salian is used to reading. Public prosecutor Ganesh Shanbaugh, whose office she joined as a junior lawyer right after completing her LLB, used to make her read law books and case studies. "Shanbaugh made me read morning to evening. It was terrible. But I am grateful to him; he taught me all the basics I needed to know.

When I first approached him, he asked me why I wanted to be a criminal lawyer. I said I had the inclination and he promised to make me a good criminal lawyer in nine months. Then began the strict vigorous training of Ganesh Shanbaugh."

This rigorous period gave Salian a headstart. Shanbaugh's name ensured that judges gave her briefs. "I was a product of the legal aid. It made me see the plight of the accused. I worked 10 years as a defence lawyer and then went into prosecution. There's been no looking back," she says.

But the Rohini Salian who came to Mumbai from a small Karnataka town in 1974 would have been very different from the one who joined Shanbaugh. And, the one who began as a junior lawyer with Shanbaugh was very different from the lady who sits in front of us now. In those days, law was a livelihood. Now, it's a pursuit for truth. The change came when, perhaps, money stopped mattering as much. "I felt I needed to do something bigger. I was destined to be what I am today."

This, she attributes to two things: being single, and the convictions of her mother. "Had I been married, I would have had to sacrifice a lot and consider someone else's thoughts. But I have freedom. Although I am with my family, I have the freedom to think and act independently. All those who told me once to get married, now say that I am lucky. My mother was modern and just told me to do everything that I wished for with conviction and so I am where I am today. I don't say everyone should be like me, but if you have the strength and the passion to achieve something, go ahead," she says.

Not only did Salian achieve that 'something', she got noticed for it too. First, as the defence lawyer in the first TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act) matter before Judge J N Patel. From here she was taken on as a special prosecutor for TADA cases.

Her celebrity status got seriously amped up after her cross-questioning of Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta in the Bharat Shah case. It ended with Shah Rukh professing, in court, that he was "won over" by Salian but the actors were later declared hostile by the advocate.

Bogus cases
Salian says she always takes up cases in which she feels there are major injustices, like police atrocities. "I can smell a bogus case because my experience helps me to. I feel strongly against corruption. I believe that more than punishing the ones who take the bribe, it is we who give money to get work done who should be punished. We are the roots of corruption. The corruption act requires someone to complain, but who will go and complain?" asks Salian.u00a0

Look back in anger
This Colaba resident, who lives close to Leopold's Cafu00e9 where the first wave of terrorist attacks took place, shows displeasure that things had normalised and people had forgotten. "When things like this happen, we get out candles, come together and then forget it. Things went back to normal after a few months," says the ex-public prosecutor, with tears in her eyes as she remembers the police officers she knew who lost their lives in the attacks.

'No Qasab for me'
When asked if she would have taken up the 26/11 case if she were still in the post of chief public prosecutor, she replies, "I'd never have taken up the Qasab case because I'm still angry and biased against him completely. I would not be able to act fair in his case. I am human and even I have grudges."

A case I can't forget
With tears in her eyes, Salian recalls, "The Borivali double murder, in which youngsters brutally murdered an infant, was one case I really got attached to. The boys murdered a 16-month-old baby and his grandmother. I saw photos of the crime scene where the boys had hung this baby with a telephone wire from a ceiling fan. Why they did it, nobody knows, but it's an unpardonable crime."

The High Court judgment stated it as the rarest of rare cases and granted the accused capital punishment. The case is currently on in the Supreme Court. "I had to counsel the baby's mother Glenda Lobo for 11 months to get the courage to dispose all that she had witnessed before the court. She witnessed the murder of her son and mother."