Mumbai, July 22: Two days after the lone surviving Mumbai attacker, Ajmal Amir Kasab, confessed his involvement in the case, he on Wednesday urged the judge hearing into it to award him death sentence.
Dropping another bombshell in the special court at Arthur Road Jail as soon as the hearing commenced Kasab told special judge M.L. Tahiliani, “Hang me.”
The latest bolt from the blue probably gives a peak into the killer’s current state of mind.
Earlier, on Monday, Kasab’s confession had taken a packed courtroom by surprise. His lawyer has since been trying to paint it as a statement and not a confession.
Kasab was restrained from continuing his confession by the judge on Tuesday, as the prosecution had sought more time to prepare its stand.
The ball now is in the judge’s court. He will have to decide the course of the trial.
Tahiliani now has three options — accept Kasab’s plea as it is which means that the trial will end; reject this so-called confession as the public prosecutor has already said that Kasab’s confession has several half truths; or treat it just as a statement and not a confession.
In the last option, the confessionary statement will be recorded and kept aside till a proper stage. Then the trial will proceed till its logical conclusion.
Soon after the hearing special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said Kasab’s latest statement could be a ploy to save the handlers of the attack so it needed to be seen carefully.
Meanwhile, slain ATS chief Hemant Karkare’s wife told Headlines Today that Kasab should be hanged publicly.
–Agencies