HC upholds Kasab’s death penalty; two Indians acquitted

The Bombay high court today rejected the appeal of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving gunman from the 2008 three-day terror attack on the Indian financial capital, against his death sentence.

 A trial court handed down a death sentence last year for the Pakistani, on charges of murder, conspiracy and waging war on India. The high court upheld his conviction.

"This is a victory of justice and defeat of drama by Pakistani terrorist Kasab," special public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said after the verdict.

Speaking to mediapersons, a beaming Nikam said that "the storm of terror unleashed by Kasab and his accomplices has finally ended". Rather dramatically, he added that there would be mourning and breast-beating in the camps of his (Pakistani) handlers.

In his briefing, in which he called Kasab "a monster" and "a demon" and also threw in a poetic couplet to loud applause, Nikam said that Kasab frequently attempted to misguide the prosecution and investigators, changed his statements at regular intervals and even pleaded for a life term at the fag end of the trial.

"However, nothing worked and we managed to foil all his designs. The Bombay high court has upheld our plea, terming it as 'the rarest of rare cases' and retained the death verdict by the lower court," Nikam said.

Expressing his happiness at the outcome, Nikam said the "monster" who was involved in the 26-29 November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, in which 166 people were killed and over 230 injured, has been brought to justice.