New Delhi: The Maharashtra government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the arrest of Mohammad Ajmal Amir
Kasab proved crucial as he disclosed that the conspiracy
in 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case was hatched in Pakistan.
"Had Kasab not been caught alive, then it would not have
been possible to know that outsiders were involved in the
mayhem and confusion would have percolated that it was done
by insiders," former Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam,
appearing for the state government, submitted before a bench
of justices Aftab Alam and C K Prasad.
Subramaniam, along with special public prosecutor Ujjwal
Nikam, said, "The entire criminal conspiracy for the 26/11
Mumbai terror attack was hatched in Pakistan" and among the 10
terrorists involved in the carnage, the first casualty had
come from the hands of Kasab, who had killed the navigator of
the Indian boat used by them on way to reach Mumbai.
"Kasab, who was apprehended at Chaupati the same night,
made a disclosure that he beheaded the navigator of the Indian
boat, Kuber, used by him and nine of his accomplices to reach
at Budhawar Park in Mumbai," they said, while refuting the
allegation that 24-year-old Kasab, the sole convict in 26/11
Mumbai terror attack case, was not given fair trial.
Prosecution asserted that the death sentence awarded to
Kasab was a permissible means of punishment for the offence
and cited the barbaric and cruel manner in which the navigator
of Kuber, Amar Singh Solanki, was beheaded by him.
"Police, which had toed the vessel, had found that
Solanki was killed in a cruel manner," they said and narrated
the entire sequence of events, starting from the conspiracy
hatched in Pakistan by Lashkar-e-Toiba to the day of incident
in which 166 people were killed.
Subramaniam contended that Kasab was never tortured or
maltreated and there has been no violation of his
constitutional rights.
"At no point of time Kasab was tortured or maltreated by
the authorities and there has been no failure of
constitutional rights given to him," Subrananiam submitted.
He said in pursuance of the conspiracy, Kasab and nine
deceased terrorists, who were supposed to land at 7.30 pm,
had landed at Budhawar Park at 9.30 pm by the Kuber boat
which they had abandoned four nautical miles from Mumbai and
had taken a fast moving rubber boat to reach Budhawar Park.
The prosecutors said out of the 10 terrorists, two had
gone to the Nariman Point to attack Hotel Oberoi Trident.
They said disclosure made by Kasab was passed over to the
Coastal Guards and a chopper was put in service to locate
Kuber.
Kasab had yesterday pleaded with the Supreme Court to
commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.
Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, who has been appointed
amicus curiae by the apex court to defend Kasab, had told the
bench that he was not a part of the larger conspiracy for
waging war against the nation.
Stressing on Kasab's age as an important factor to
commute his sentence, he had pleaded for a lenient approach as
he was drawn into it as a result of exploitation of religious
faith and false ideology.
Maintaining that the prosecution has failed to prove the
case against Kasab beyond doubts, he had said that his right
against self-incrimination as well as his right to get himself
adequately represented by a counsel to defend himself in the
case had been violated during the trial.
The apex court had on October 10 last year stayed the
death sentence of Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist involved
in the November 2008 Mumbai attack.
In the special leave petition (SLP) challenging the
Bombay High Court judgement, Kasab had claimed he was
brainwashed like a "robot" into committing the heinous
crime in the name of "God" and that he does not deserve
capital punishment owing to his young age.
Kasab, who is lodged in Arthur Road prison in Mumbai,
had moved the SLP through the jail authorities. He had
challenged his conviction and death sentence in the terror
attack case.
Kasab, along with nine other Pakistani terrorists, had
landed in south Mumbai on November 26, 2008, night after
travelling from Karachi by sea and had gone on a shooting
spree at various city landmarks.
While Kasab was captured, the other terrorists in the
group were killed by security forces during the counter-terror
operations. He was sentenced to death by a special anti-terror
court on May 6, 2010.
The Bombay High Court had on February 21, last year,
upheld the trial court order of death sentence to Kasab for
the "brutal and diabolical" attacks aimed at "destabilising"
the government.
Kasab's death penalty was upheld on charges of criminal
conspiracy, waging war against the nation and various other
provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the anti-terror law --
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The High Court had upheld Kasab's conviction on 19 counts
under the IPC, Arms Act, Explosives Act, Explosive Substances
Act, Foreigners Act, Passport Act and Railway Act.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, February 15, 2012, 09:47