Mumbai: Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab is a
liar and plotter who invented stories from time to time during
the course of his year-long trial in the 26/11 attacks case,
Maharashtra government counsel Ujjwal Nikam told the Bombay
High Court M Monday.
However, whenever Kasab came up with a new story, he
got trapped in his own web, Nikam told justices Ranjana Desai
and R V More who are hearing confirmation of death sentence
awarded to the terrorist for his role in the attacks.
Nikam said when the trial court had put the evidence
before Kasab to know what he had to say, the convict had told
judge M L Tahaliyani that he was not arrested on the night of
terror attacks (November 26-27, 2008) but was caught by police
much prior to that.
Kasab had concocted a story to tell the court that he
had come to Mumbai via Samjhauta Express to watch Hindi movies
and that he was arrested by police as he was holding a
Pakistani passport, Nikam submitted.
Nikam further said that Kasab had taken this defence
to show that he was already in police custody at the time of
terror attacks. This type of stand is called as "alibi" in
Latin, which implies that the accused was present elsewhere at
the time of commission of offence, he said.
He contended that normally the burden is on
prosecution to establish the guilt of the accused but if he
takes the defence of "alibi", then onus is on him to discharge
the burden -- to prove that he was not present at the spot
when the crime was committed.
PTI
First Published: Monday, November 22, 2010, 23:56