Indian SC upholds Kasab’s death penalty

Thursday, August 30, 2012 - New Delhi—India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentence for Pakistani national Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only survivor of the militant group behind 2008 Mumbai attack that claimed 166 lives. Upholding the death sentence, the apex court stated, “Waging war against the country was the primary and foremost offence committed by him,” our New Delhi correspondent reports.

A bench of Justice Aftab Alam and CK Prasad dismissed the plea that challenged the conviction and death sentence of 25-year-old Kasab. Kasab had pleaded that his death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment.

“We are left with no option but to uphold the death sentence of Kasab,” stated the Supreme Court. “The government not providing him a counsel at pre-trial stage did not vitiate his trial,” stated the apex court in a reply to Kasab’s plea that said he was not given a fair trial in the case.

The bench also held that the confessional statement given by Kasab, which he had retracted during the trial, was very much voluntary except a very small portion. Kasab and his nine fellow Pakistani terrorists had attacked Mumbai on the night of November 26, 2008 after travelling from Karachi by sea and went on a shooting spree at various city landmarks.

While Kasab was captured alive, the others were killed by Indian security forces during the counter-terror operations. Kasab had moved to the Supreme Court on February 14 this year after the High Court, in October last year, upheld a trial court order sentencing Kasab to death.

The lower court had pronounced its judgment on May 6, 2010, 18 months after he was captured. —APP