Kasab sings like a canary

No pressure from anyone

There were many theories floating around till lunch break and even after Kasab himself told the reason for his confession, although it was not very convincing.

“Aaj achanak aapne kyun confess kiya? Jab pehle charges frame hue toh tab kyun nahi kiya? (Why are you suddenly confessing? Why did you not confess to your crime when the charges were framed earlier?)” the special court judge M L Tahilyani asked Kasab as the court reopened for the post-lunch session.

It was a question the world wanted to ask the captured Pakistani terrorist.

‘Pakistan accepted me’

Kasab replied: “Pehle Pakistan ne yeh nahi mana tha ki main unka hoon. Aaj maan liya hai. Isiliye main bayan de raha hoon. (Initially, Pakistan had not accepted my nationality.

Now that they have, I am confessing).”

The immediate question was how Kasab came to know about Pakistan accepting his nationality, as he has been denied access to newspapers or television, although he interacts regularly with his lawyer Abbas Kazmi.

“Aapko kaise pata chala ki Pakistan ne maan liya hai? (How do you know that Pakistan has admitted?)” the judge asked.

“Bas mujhe pata chala. Maine suna ki Pakistan ne kaha ki Kasab yahan ka hai. (I just came to know. I heard that Pakistan has said that Kasab is from there.)” That was Kasab’s vague reply to the question.

The judge then asked Kasab “Kya tum kisi tarah ke dabav main ho bayan dene ke liye? (Are you under any pressure to confess?)”

“Nahi (No),” was the terrorist’s firm reply.

Does Kasab’s confession at this juncture make any difference to the trial? Legal experts who are watching this trial carefully say that Kasab’s confession has come at the end of deposition of almost all witnesses in the CST massacre case, which was the only case in which Kasab was directly and physically involved.

There were photographic evidence against Kasab, captured by photojournalists, as well as CCTV footages, which could not have been denied.

Kasab is also facing charges in Cama firing case, killing of three cops including former ATS chief Hemant Karkare and others, but all that happened in dark and no one could pinpoint his exact role in those incidents.

For example, Kasab says that it was his accomplice Abu Ismail who killed Karkare and two top officers. No one has come forward so far to contradict this statement. The one witness who was to depose on Monday, a constable Arun Jadhav, was in the jeep of Karkare, but he himself was injured.

However, in CST case, Kasab’s role has been firmly established, and it was only after that the terrorist has confessed to his crime. “The confession is belated. We need to find out if the confession is voluntary or forced or if he was instructed to confess. He is trying to bring matters to an end. The judge should record the evidence and then the conclusion.

If he had remorse he should have done it earlier. The evidence was so clinching that no court would be in a position to come to any other finding,” senior lawyer Satish Manshinde stated.