The security precautions at the Tihar Central Jail in suburban New Delhi were unusually strict last week as heavily armed police guarded a makeshift courtroom for the final hearing of an eight-month trial. Both judge and defendants were protected behind bulletproof glass shields. After taking the bench, Judge Mahesh Chandra wasted no time. The evidence was overwhelming, he said, that the three suspects in the October 1984 assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi were guilty. Following a brief recess, Chandra declared this to be one of those "rarest of rare" crimes in which the ultimate penalty was clearly called for. He...
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