26/11 Mumbai terror attacks: Youngest survivor and key eyewitness moves HC seeking house from govt

Mumbai: The youngest survivor and witness to the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Devika Rotawan, filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking the allotment of residential premises after the Maharashtra government denied her request.

This is the second time that Rotawan, now 23 years old, has approached the court. In 2020, she had filed a similar petition. In October 2020, the high court had directed the Maharashtra government to consider her plea and pass appropriate orders.

In her fresh plea filed last month, Rotawan said the government had rejected her representation, following which she was constrained to file a second petition in the high court.

On Thursday, when the petition came up for hearing before a division bench of Justices S V Gangapurwala and M S Karnik, additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan, who appeared for the Maharashtra government, said that pursuant to the October 2020 order, a compensation of Rs 13.26 lakh was handed over to Rotawan on compassionate grounds.

Advocate R Bubna, appearing for the Union government, said Rotawan was given compensation of Rs 10 lakh after the attacks as per government policy. He said she (Rotawan) cannot be demanding more as a matter of right. Since no lawyer was present for Rotawan on Thursday, the bench adjourned the hearing in the plea till 12 October.

Rotwan, who was nine years old at the time of the terror attacks at multiple locations in the city, was at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) railway station along with her father and brother when two of the ten Pakistani terrorists opened fire.

In her plea, Rotawan said she had suffered a bullet injury on her leg and her father and brother too sustained injuries. It said because of several morbidities, it was not possible for her father and brother to earn a livelihood.

The plea also said she and her family are living in penury and they would be rendered homeless as they have not been able to pay the rent for their house.

Rotawan in her petition further said that after the attacks, several Central and state government officials had visited her house and assured her to provide accommodation to them under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota.

The officials, she claimed in her petition, also assured to make adequate arrangements for her education and monetary assistance for her and her family’s medical treatment. But she did not receive any help, it said.

On 26 November 2008, 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists from Pakistan arrived by sea route and opened fire, killing 166 people, including 18 security personnel, and injuring several others during the 60-hour siege in Mumbai.

Nine terrorists were later killed by the security forces, including the NSG, the country’s elite commando force. Ajmal Kasab was the only terrorist who was captured alive. He was hanged four years later on 21 November 2012.

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