Judge who sent Kasab to the gallows is Maharashtra Lokayukta

Justice Mangaldas Laxmandas Tahaliyani, who gave death penalty to Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, who was part of a Lashkar-e-Tayyiba squad that had carried out a massacre in Mumbai in November 2008, would be the next Lokayukta of Maharashtra.

Sixty-two-year-old Justice Tahaliyani, who retired as a judge of the Bombay High Court on Friday, would be sworn in as Lokayukta by Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao on Monday.

Justice Tahaliyani will succeed Justice PB Gaikwad, whose five-year term ended on July 1 last year after which the post became vacant.

Justice Tahaliyani conducted the trial of the 26/11 terror attack as an additional sessions judge and convicted Kasab and sentenced him to death.

The case was opened on May 6, 2009, and he delivered the judgment on May 6, 2010--exactly a year after.

 Even the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court had praised the way the high-profile trial was conducted.

As a sessions judge, the veteran had conducted the trial involving the killings of trade unionist Dutta Samant and music baron Gulshan Kumar and several other high-profile cases.

Born on December 23, 1953, at Sardar Shahar in Churu district of Rajasthan, Justice Tahaliyani practised in Gondia and Chandrapur in Mahrashtra.

 He worked as an assistant public prosecutor from 1979-86 in Naxalite-hit areas of Gadchiroli, Sironcha, Desaiganj and Warora in Maharashtra.

In 1987, he became a metropolitan magistrate in Mumbai, in 1994, he was appointed additional chief metropolitan magistrate while in 1997, he became the chief metropolitan magistrate.

 From 1997 to 2011, he served in various capacities in Mumbai Sessions Court and then elevated as a judge of the Bombay High Court.