ON February 22, the Bombay High Court confirmed the death sentence of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist of the horrific 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai. A special court set up for Kasab's trial had sentenced him to death on four counts last year. Kasab's lawyer, Farzana Shah, told the media that they would appeal against the death penalty in the Supreme Court.
Although the state had said that this trial would be put on the fast track, it has been going on for two and a half years and there appears to be no sign of an end. For the families of the victims of the 2008 attack, it means that justice is once again delayed. They promised us it would be over soon. But it is dragging on and on. Kasab is a constant reminder that my father is dead, and we want justice for that, said the daughter of a prominent businessman who was killed in the attack.
Moreover, the cost of keeping Kasab alive and safe in Mumbai's Arthur Road jail has already run into several crores of rupees. Unofficial estimates are that Rs.100 crore has been spent on Kasab's security. For instance, his cell and the tunnel leading to it can withstand almost every form of attack. Reportedly, Rs.2 crore was spent on the structure. The area in the jail that houses Kasab was once occupied by the court where the 1992-93 Mumbai serial bombing cases were heard. Today it resembles a fortress; structures resembling iron and steel cages have replaced the old courtroom.
In May 2010, a special court sentenced Kasab to death on four counts. Justice M.L. Tahilyani had awarded him the death sentence for murder, conspiracy to murder, waging war against India, and participating in an act of terror under the Unlawful Activity Prevention Act (UAPA). The court said that keeping Kasab alive would be a lingering danger to society.
Kasab, who is the 52nd prisoner on death row in India, was also awarded a life term on five other counts by the special court.
Upholding the special court's sentence, Justice Ranjana Desai of the Bombay High Court said: Perhaps the weightiest aggravating circumstance is that Kasab waged a war against the Government of India pursuant to a conspiracy which was hatched in Pakistan, the object of which was to inter alia destabilise the Government of India and to weaken India's economic might.
The judge added that Kasab's most serious crime was waging war on the Indian government whose stability is most essential and crucial for the very existence of democratic India.
The court order said: He indulged in mindless killings of innocent people with a view to overawing the Government of India and achieving cessation of a part of Indian territory. There was an attempt to create ill will and disaffection among different religions of India so as to damage its secular fabric. Waging war is a serious crime which calls for deterrent punishment.
The gun-wielding image of Kasab, beamed across the world, became the face of terror on the night of November 26, 2008, when a band of 10 fidayeen stormed two luxury hotels, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, a Jewish religious centre and Leopold Cafe, all in South Mumbai, and killed at least 173 people and injured several hundreds. Kasab and his associate Ismail Khan were held responsible for 52 of these deaths.
The court rejected the defence contention that Kasab was mentally unstable. He did not appear to be repentant at all. He was perfectly sane. All his actions portray a scheming mind and not the mind of a mentally unstable person, it said. Furthermore, the court rejected the argument that the death penalty would make a martyr of Kasab.
Kasab's crime was of a magnitude for which the sentence of life imprisonment is inadequate. We feel that we would never be as confident as we are today in confirming the death sentence, Justice Ranjana Desai said.
In a significant move, the Central government has said that it will allow an investigating team from Pakistan to question Indian witnesses, lawyers and medical experts who participated in the 26/11 terror attack trial.
We have agreed to allow that commission to come to India to record evidence. But we have also asked the Pakistan government whether it would agree to receive a team from India to question some suspects, said Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram at a press conference.
Anupama KatakamCOMMents
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