Youngest witness in Kasab case seeks death sentence for Tahawwur Hussain Rana

Devika Rotawan, youngest witness in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case, dreams of becoming an IPS officer to fight terrorism.

Devika Natwarlal Rotawan was nine when she was shot in the right leg by one of two terrorists that launched an attack on passengers at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai on November 26, 2008.

She had gone to the railway station with her brother and father, Natwarlal Rotawan, to board a train to Pune. The terrorists were later identified as Ajmal Kasab and Abu Ismail.

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Ms. Devika and her father were key witnesses in the case against Kasab. She was in fact the youngest witness in the case.

“I was at the CST station between platforms 12 and 13 when my brother said he wanted to use the restroom before boarding the train. My father, meanwhile, went to buy a ticket, and suddenly there was a bomb blast and continuous firing. People were shot all over and when I was trying to escape the scene, I was shot in my right leg, and I collapsed there. There was no space at St. George Hospital, so I was transferred to J.J. Hospital, where I was admitted for a month and a half and underwent six surgeries,” Ms. Devika, now 26 and a B.A. graduate, said on Thursday (April 10, 2025), recalling the fateful night.  

As the Kasab trial progressed, Ms. Devika and her family became a subject of ridicule. People in school and the neighbourhood would tease her, saying, “Hey, look, Kasab is passing by.” Relatives severed ties with the family, and her father lost his dry fruit business as people were anxious that they would be targeted.  

She dreams of becoming an IPS officer and if that does not happen, she wants to pursue a career where she can serve the country and fight against terrorism.