Mumbai, May 03: Seventeen months after the audacious attack on Mumbai that left 166 dead and thousands scarred for life, the 26/11 Special Court on Monday pronounced the lone captured Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab guilty of waging war against India and manslaughter.
However, the two Indian co-accused Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed who were charged for conspiracy in the terror attacks – preparing maps of the targeted locations and handing these to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operatives – were acquitted by the court.
Pronouncing the verdict, after examining as many as 653 witnesses and on the basis of a 675-page written submission, Special Judge ML Tahilyani accepted the prosecution’s contention that Kasab was one among the 10 terrorists who came to Mumbai via sea from Karachi on November 26, 2008 and launched multiple attacks in India’s financial and entertainment nerve centre.
The trial in the case started on April 15, 2009 and ended on March 31 this year.
Kasab was found guilty under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including waging war against the nation and Section 302 – which attracts death sentence. He was also found guilty under the Explosives Act, Arms Act, Passport Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Properties Act, Customs Act, Explosive Substances Act, Bombay Police Act, Foreigners Act, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Besides Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, defence lawyers, including Kasab’s lawyer KP Pawar, Ansari’s lawyer RB Mokashi, and Ahmed’s lawyer Ejaz Naqvi were present in the packed court room when the verdict was delivered.
In July last year, Kasab had “confessed” to his crimes. “Hang me, please,” Kasab pleaded two days after he made a dramatic confession and gave a chilling blow-by-blow account of his part in the attacks.
“I have committed the crimes on this earth and the people of the world should punish me. I don’t want God’s punishment. But, if somebody feels that I have confessed to escape the death penalty, the court can definitely hang me,” Kasab begged.
Kasab was lodged in a solitary ‘anda’ (oval) cell in the Arthur Road Central Jail. His cell was reinforced with layers of cement and steel capable of thwarting any major attacks or bomb blast.
Kasab had come to Mumbai via the Arabian Sea route with nine other associates and targeted sites like the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, Hotel Oberoi-Trident, the Cama Hospital and the Chabad, a Jewish prayer centre at Nariman House, and the favourite haunt of foreigners, Leopold Café.
All besides Kasab were killed during the 60-hour operation by combined security forces. The bodies of the terrorists were preserved in the morgue of Sir JJ Hospital, barely a kilometre from Kasab’s abode in jail.
The Maharashtra government quietly disposed of the bodies in January this year after the Muslim community refused to bury them on Indian soil. So far details of how and where the bodies were disposed of continue to elude the media.
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