Rajan Varma will play Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist who was caught by the Mumbai police, and is presently in custody.
Having sought the custody of alleged lashkar-e-Tayiba handler of 26/11 terrorists Abu Jundal from a Delhi court, Mumbai police are now gearing up to confront him with the lone surviving perpetrator of the brazen attacks Ajmal Kasab.
Pakistani gunman Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, lawyers and mediapersons burst into laughter when prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told the special court conducting 26/11 terror trial that he was the lone surviving gunman's "enemy number one."
Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested during the terror attack on Mumbai in November 2008, on Friday told a special court hearing the 26/11 terror case that he was not aware of the attacks at Hotel Taj, Hotel Oberoi, Nariman House and Leopold Cafe in Mumbai. "I also do not know the people who had fired and exploded bombs at these places on November 26, 2008," Kasab said in reply to questions put to him by Judge M L Tahiliyani.
Both central and Maharashtra governments have spent around Rs 29.5 crores on Ajmal Kasab to provide him food, security, medicines and clothes during his confinement in Arthur Road Central prison in Mumbai, official sources said on Wednesday.
Ajmal Kasab's execution, after he was sent to the gallows on Thursday, may not happen soon, but calls grew loud that he be hanged quickly, amid hopes that the Pakistani terrorist does not end up being on the death row 'waiting list'. Authorities were asked to show urgency in carrying out the death sentence awarded to the 22-year-old Pakistani terrorist. "I don't want any delay in hanging Kasab. I want fast track hanging of Kasab," said K Unnikrishnan.
Frequent U-turns by Ajmal Kasab marked the nearly year-long trial in the 26/11 terror attack case with the Pakistani gunman first confessing to his crime then retracting it before surprising all by making a guilt plea and then disowning his confession altogether.
The lone captured Pakistani gunman, Ajmal Kasab, today looked flustered and confused while trying to prove his innocence in front of judge M L Tahaliyani.
Following the execution of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist of 26/11 Mumbai attack, Maharashtra government is hoping that it would not have to cough up Rs 21 crore on account of deployment of Indo-Tibetan Border Police.
The Indo-Tibetan Norder Police, which has incurred an expenditure of more than Rs 34 crore on the security of 26/11 attack terrorist Ajmal Kasab, will soon move out its men who guarded him in Arthur Road prison in Mumbai.
"The first thing that comes to my mind is what happened is good. We are happy that we have got justice," wife of a railway ticket collector, who was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai carnage, said today reacting to Pakistan terrorist Ajmal Kasab's hanging.
Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, who was hanged to death on Wednesday, received the due process of law in a full and transparent trial, the United States said on Thursday, asserting that it wants to see the terrorists behind the 26/11 attack brought to justice.
Abu Jundal, an alleged operative of terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba and a key handler during the 26/11 terror attacks, has approached the Bombay high court seeking that he should not be kept in solitary confinement in the same cell where Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab once stayed.
Date, a 1990 Indian Police Service officer of the Maharashtra cadre who once sold newspapers in Pune to financially support his family, was honoured with the President's Police medal for gallantry for his role in what has come to be known as the 26/11 attack.
Making it clear that it could not wait further for 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab to file an appeal against the trial court's order sentencing him to death for his role in the 26/11 terror attack, the Bombay high court on Monday said it would proceed with the confirmation of the death sentence from October 11 or October 18. Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said the Pakistani terrorist had a threat perception and bringing him to court would be a great risk.
The Mumbai Crime Branch, which probed the 26/11 terror attack case, on Wednesday termed as an "important milestone" the Supreme Court verdict upholding death sentence of Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab.
After delivering the judgment awarding death sentence to Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested during the terror siege on Mumbai, Judge Madan Lalakshman Tahaliyani officially recorded his appreciation for Rakesh Maria, former head of the crime branch who investigated the case, and his assistant Deven Bharti. The judge didn't also forget to mention the media's positive role
Special court Judge M L Tahiliyani said, "it appears that accused number one, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab and deceased accused number one, Abu Ismail were never destined to go to Chowpatty."
The death sentence awarded to Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, is a result of a fair and transparent judicial process of India, the United States has said.
A Pakistani anti-terror court conducting the trial of Lashkar-e-Tayiba's Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six others accused of involvement in the Mumbai attacks on Saturday dismissed the prosecution's application for naming Ajmal Kasab and Fahim Ansari as 'proclaimed offenders' or fugitives.
The mother of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai terror attack case, is coming to India to meet him, as the stage is set for the start of the trial of the Pakistani national in Mumbai on Wednesday.
'The precision strikes were well planned and excellently executed. The world will be studying this operation.'
The judge rejected the argument saying there is no bona fide argument or evidence that Kasab did the act under duress or because of pressure from the LeT or its chief Hafeez Saeed. "There was no duress, no pressure on Kasab. Rather, when they were in Karachi their travel got delayed. At that time Kasab was anxious to attack India."
Three days before the anti-terror court pronounces its verdict, 23-year-old Vaishali Omble, daughter of the slain policeman, told PTI that her family will never forgive Kasab, who altered their lives forever.
Jamaat-ud-Dawaa chief Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai terror attack, on Wednesday claimed that he has never known Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested that night. "I never saw him. In fact, it was from the media in India that I discovered he was a Pakistani national," Saeed said in a rare interview to Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel in Lahore."I have never met Kasab nor have I ever known him and I have said this on many occasions," he said.
It doesn't matter how they did it. The end result is what matters, says Sharan Arasa, reacting to the news of 26/11 Mumbai terror convict Ajmal Kasab's execution. He spoke to Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab claimed on Thursday that the police had fabricated evidence by feeding data in the Global Positioning System, which showed that the 26/11 terrorists came from Karachi to Mumbai by the sea route.
In his latest antic, Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab chose to answer in Marathi most of the questions put to him by the trial court on Wednesday as he continued to deny his involvement in the 26/11 terror attacks.
Nikam has replaced two-time MP Poonam Mahajan, who is the daughter of the late BJP stalwart Pramod Mahajan.
Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab facing death penalty for the 2008 Mumbai terror attack claimed in the Supreme Court he was brainwashed like a "robot" into committing the heinous crime in the name of "God" and that he does not deserve capital punishment owing to his young age.
It seems Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has annoyed both his bosses in the Congress and the government by his over-the top statement that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were not aware of the secret operation of Ajmal Kasab's hanging and came to know about it only through television.
Doubts have been raised about the fate of Sarabjit Singh -- an Indian jailed in Pakistan on charges of terror -- after Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab was hanged in a Pune jail on Wednesday. But Sarabjit's lawyer Awais Sheikh says that the recent development will make no difference to the case.
A torrent of issues ranging from price rise to demand for dismissal of Mayawati government and immediate execution of Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru drowned the second day of the Monsoon session of Parliament on Tuesday.
Police have provided round-the-clock security cover to criminal lawyer Amin Solkar who has been appointed by the Bombay high court to defend Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab with regard to confirmation of death sentence awarded to him in the 26/11 terror attack case.
A special team of Jammu and Kashmir police has traced an e-mail threatening terror attacks in the wake of Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist Ajmal Kasab's hanging to Bengaluru.
The nation is happy that the most dreaded terrorist caught alive in India was finally sent to the gallows.
A Pakistani court reserved its decision on Monday, on a petition filed by authorities to challenge an anti-terrorism court's order rejecting a plea to declare Ajmal Kasab and Fahim Ansari as fugitives. A Rawalpindi-based bench of the Lahore High Court comprising Justices Rauf Ahmed Sheikh and Hasan Raza Pasha reserved its decision after hearing arguments by the counsel for the Federal Investigation Agency, which had filed the petition on April 10.
Mumbai Anti Terrorist Squad and Intelligence Bureau sleuths have found their Indian link to the Mumbai terror attack. Investigations conducted by the Mumbai ATS and the IB have revealed that the arrested militant, Ajmal Kasab and Mohammad Ghouse, a Hyderabad resident, had attended the same training school and had even trained together.
Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested for the 26/11 attacks, on Monday named four Lashkar-e- Tayiba members, including its operations chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, who came to see the 10 accomplices off when they started from Karachi in a boat to reach the shores in Mumbai.
Ever since the arrest of lone surviving Pakistani 26/11 gunman Ajmal Kasab, there has been talk about the amount that is being spent on his security. While his daily expenditure has been estimated at Rs 3.5 lakh, the amount spent on him so far is close to around Rs 48 crore, of which the charges of the Indo Tibetan Border Police alone is Rs 31 crore.