JOIN US'You reap what you sow':Kasab
Kasab, 22, shared this nugget of wisdom with none other than state Home Minister R R Patil, who led a delegation of politicians, including Leader of Opposition Eknath Khadse of the BJP, on a surprise visit to check the security arrangements at the jail. The members of the state Assembly could not curb their curiosity to look into Kasab’s bomb-proof cell.
When they saw Kasab, Khadse enquired of the terrorist, “ How do you feel here in jail?”
“Jaisa boya, waisa kata (you reap what you saw),” was Kasab’s reply, now waiting on the death row for having killed scores of hapless people during the 26/11 terror strikes on Mumbai two years ago.
The entire sequence of the brief encounter was related to the media by Patil himself at the state secretariat later. “More than this, I also did not want to speak (to Kasab),” Patil said.
The Bombay High Court is currently hearing confirmation of death sentence awarded by a special trial court to Kasab, who has also filed an appeal against the conviction.
Patil said he found the jail overcrowded. “It has a capacity of 781 inmates but in reality, around 2,000 prisoners are lodged here,” he said. The staff strength at the jail is also less than one-third of the sanctioned strength.
“We will shift some of them to the new Taloja jail which has come up in adjoining Raigad district,” he said. The state government would also come up with a policy on jail security in view of the towers that have come up in the vicinity of the jail.
The state government’s special counsel Ujjwal Nikam has urged the division bench to view CCTV footage of Ajmal Kasab and his slain accomplice Abu Ismail committing terror attacks in and around the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, which provides direct evidence of their involvement in the crime. The CCTV footage would be screened next week with the high court’s permission.
Justifying the death penalty, Nikam tabled before the high court a few photos of Kasab and Ismail in terror acts in CST and near the Times of India building.