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The court held 25-year-old Kasab guilty of waging war against the country, saying the November 26, 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people were killed showed a degree of depravity on his part seen in very few cases.
“It is at least the very rarest of rare to come before this court since the birth of the Republic. Therefore, it should also attract the rarest of rare punishment,” the bench said.
The court dismissed Kasab’s contention that the trial was not fair because the government did not provide him advocate during the time when he was arrested and put of trial.
Refusing to show any mercy to Kasab on account of his young age and illiteracy, the apex court observed, “the offences committed by the appellant show a degree of cruelty, brutality and depravity as in very few other cases.
In a separate but concurring judgment, Justice Prasad said: “I am more than certain that the planning and conspiracy to commit the crime were hatched in Pakistan, the perpetrators of crime were Pakistani trained at different centres in that country, and the devastation which took place at various places in the city of Mumbai, were executed by the appellant in furtherance thereof.”
“As attack was as deep and large as it was vicious. The preparation and training for the execution was as thorough as the execution was ruthless.
“The saddest and the most disturbing part of the case is that the appellant never showed any remorse for the terrible things he did. As seen earlier, in the initial weeks after his arrest he continued to regard himself as a ‘watan parast’, a patriotic Pakistani who considered himself to be at war with this country, who had no use for an Indian lawyer but needed a Pakistani lawyer to defend him in the court,” the bench said.
The bench noted that in his confessional statement before the magistrate on February 17, 2009, Kasab did not display any sense of guilt or sorrow or grief, but to present himself as a hero.
“He told the magistrate that he had absolutely no regret for whatever he had done and he wanted to make the confession to set an example for others to become Fidayeen like him and follow him in his deeds.
The apex court said as long as the death penalty remains on the statute book as punishment for certain offences, including ‘waging war’ and murder, it logically followed that there must be some cases, howsoever rare or one in a million, that would call for inflicting that penalty. “That being the position we fail to see what case would attract the death penalty, if not the case of the appellant,” the bench said.
Mercy plea will be disposed of fast
The government promised to dispose of his mercy petition to President Pranab Mukherjee “in minimum time,” reports DHNS from New Delhi.
“If Kasab files mercy plea, we will ensure that it is disposed of in minimum time,” Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said on Wednesday.