After Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam closed his arguments in the case, Judge Tahiliani informed that the court will record Kasab's statement on December 18.
The 26/11 terror trial is not only against Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab, who was caught alive, but also against the terror organisation Lashkar-e-Tayiba, which masterminded the Mumbai attacks, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said here on Wednesday.
Lawyers of Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab on Tuesday urged the Bombay high court not to make him a martyr by hanging him even as the state justified capital punishment saying he had committed heinous crime against humanity by participating in the 26/11 attacks.
As secrecy shrouded the hanging of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, inmates and authorities of Buxar prison believe that the rope used for the purpose was manufactured by the jail.
In the first of a five-part series in March 2009, rediff.com brought to you an exclusive excerpt written by journalist Ashish Khetan detailing the initial interrogation of an injured Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving terrorist, in the early hours of November 28, 2008, even as the siege continued at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi-Trident hotels and Nariman House. We reproduce the special
Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil on Wednesday said there should be a timeframe to award punishment in terror cases and sought to know for how long the government should take care of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, facing death penalty in the 26/11 case.
Legal experts told rediff.com that there is no hard and fast rule that mercy petitions should be disposed off in order. The President can take a call and take up the matter out of turn. The President must be satisfied that there is an extraordinary circumstance concerning this case and hence it must be taken out of turn.
Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai terror attacks, has been sentenced to death -- the ultimate punishment available under the Indian Penal Code under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.
This is how Ajmal Kasab's lawyer K P Pawar described the lone terrorist arrested during the terror siege on Mumbai in his final arguments in the trial on Thursday."Kasab has no connection with the perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks. He has been arrested by the police just because he is a Pakistani and according to the police, the conspiracy of the attack was hatched in Pakistan," Pawar told a special court.Earlier, Kasab had taken a similar stand before the court.
The final arguments in the trial of 26/11 terror attacks case accused Ajmal Kasab will begin on March 9 in a special court in Mumbai with the prosecution expected to focus on countering the stand taken by him that he is not a terrorist and was being framed by police.
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 dismissed the prosecution's application for naming Ajmal Kasab and Fahim Ansari as "proclaimed offenders" or fugitives on Saturday.
Officers in the Intelligence Bureau say that the slew of threats are an attempt by various terror outfits to create panic. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Pakistan has tightened security at the Indian embassy in Islamabad following a 'note verbale' by New Delhi asking for greater security for the mission and its staff in view of Ajmal Kasab's hanging.
'I thought we were a legitimate democracy anyway, why do we have to prove it by hanging a terrorist we captured alive,' asks Shivam Vij
"Tumhi nighun ja (You may leave)," were the first words in Marathi which Kasab learnt as Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam would utter these to him after the court proceedings.
Senior Inspector Nagappa R Mahale, who was in charge of the D B Marg police station, was the first police officer to question Ajmal Kasab after his capture.
Modi had recently attacked the UPA government for asking Pakistan to accept the statement of Kasab as evidence and said that India itself 'does not have a similar provision under its laws'.
Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, told rediff.com, "Anyone who indulges in acts of terrorism on either side of the border should be held accountable and should be dealt with in accordance with the law, whether it is Ajmal Kasab or anyone."
Pakistani authorities were on Saturday caught on the wrong foot as an anti-terror court hearing the 26/11 case was told that Interpol was yet to be approached for a Red Corner notice for Ajmal Kasab, weeks after they claimed the matter had been taken up with the Paris-based agency.
A thick security blanket has been thrown in areas in the vicinity and checkpoints and security bunkers have been set up at all major junctions in the city.
Home Minister P Chidambaram talks about the Naxal menace, Kasab's death sentence, the role of Hindu right-wing organisations in orchestrating blasts and his impending visit to Pakistan.
The exercise of forwarding case papers and judgement of 26/11 special court to the Bombay High Court for confirmation of death penalty imposed on terrorist Ajmal Kasab would take at least three months, special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said.
The death sentence to Ajmal Kasab for the 26/11 attacks was welcomed by political parties on Thursday with Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Left maintaining that it should send a strong message in the fight against terrorism.
Majeed Memon, a prominent senior advocate, told rediff.com that the verdict is a welcome one.
In a new twist in the Mumbai terror attack case, Pakistan approached the Interpol on Saturday seeking Red Corner notices for arresting Ajmal Kasab and Fahim Ansari, currently undergoing trial in India.
Ajmal Kasab, retracting from his confessional statement before the special court hearing the Mumbai 26/11 case, is a stumbling block, but legal experts are of the opinion that it will not delay the process. In such a case, when the confession statement is retracted, there is always an element of suspicion that points either towards the accused or the investigating agency.
Hasan Ali Khan, the Pune-based stud farm owner arrested on money laundering charges, is the second-most secure inmate of the Arthur Road jail after Ajmal Kasab, lodged like the Pakistani gunman on death row in the high-security 'Anda cell'.
A division bench of justices Ranjana Desai and R V More also reserved the verdict on the appeal filed by Maharashtra government against the acquittal of LeT suspects Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed in the 26/11 case.
Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said on Tuesday that the National Investigation Agency has not approached the state government so far to question the 26/11 terror attack accused Ajmal Kasab on his possible links with alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives David Headley and Tahawwur Rana.
Contrary to what Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told the media, Sheela Bhatt discovers that the decision to execute the Pakistani terrorist was a carefully calibrated move taken by the nation's top governmental and political leadership.
The sprawling Yerwada Central prison in Pune, where 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab was hanged on Wednesday, has been a witness to many important events since its establishment by the British in 1851 on a huge 500 acre plot of land.
Defence lawyers, who appeared for Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab in the sessions and Bombay high court, on Wednesday welcomed his execution and said that by taking his case out of turn, the government has brought some peace to the victims of the 26/11 terror attack.
With the Supreme Court upholding the death sentence on the Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, India's case for action against others involved in the Mumbai terror attacks got strengthened ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari in Teheran on Tuesday.
The trial in the 26/11 Mumbai attack case is considered to be historic in nature. However the events leading up to it too are historic considering the fact that never in the history of Indian jurisprudence has a court found it so difficult to appoint an amicus curiae or a standing counsel to defend an accused.
The decision to bring the two face-to-face was taken after Jundal made some revelations during his interrogation about training being imparted to terrorists in Pakistan and that he had taught Hindi to the 26/11 attackers, crime branch sources said on Monday.
Defence Minister A K Antony on Friday said the verdict against Ajmal Kasab in the Mumbai attacks case is a "clear message" to terror outfits in Pakistan and has proved that India can take strong action against criminals and terrorists.
On the day of Ajmal Kasab's trial verdict, rediff.com's Nithya Ramani and Abhishek Mande visit the ill-fated hospitals and discover how staff members are coming to terms with 26/11
The Maharashtra government has received a bill of Rs 10 crore from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police towards reimbursing expenses on guarding 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab, lodged in the Arthur Road jail.
Fast decisions should be taken in terrorist cases like 26/11 strikes involving Ajmal Kasab and the attack on Parliament as otherwise another hijacking of an Indian aircraft may happen to get jailed militants freed, the country's chief negotiator during the IC-814 hijack, Ajit Doval has said.
Nobody from the family of Ajmal Kasab, the sole terrorist arrested during the 26/11 terror strike in Mumbai and hanged at a Pune jail on Wednesday, has asked for his body yet.But the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has demanded that New Delhi hand over the body to Pakistan.