‘Killing machine’ Kasab deserves death: Nikam (Second Lead)

MUMBAI - Ajmal Amir Kasab is “Satan, a devil” and “a killing machine” and deserves the death penalty, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told the court Tuesday a day after the Pakistani terrorist was held guilty in the 26/11 terror mayhem in Mumbai.

In his arguments before Special Judge M.L. Tahaliyani, Nikam said Kasab had been convicted for mass murder and waging war against India. “If all these are read together, the maximum punishment is death and minimum is life imprisonment,” Nikam said.

“I am for maximum punishment and this submission is not with a sense of revenge - we don’t seek barbaric justice - justice should meet the end,” Nikam argued.

Nikam said in Kasab’s case, it was not just the murders but the way in which the murders were committed, and that the accused had the “urge to kill” that shook the collective conscience of society.

This makes it “the rarest of rare cases”, not merely in terms of the number of deaths caused, but also the manner of causing the deaths and the high degree of cruelty make it an exception, he said.

Nikam further argued that Kasab did not only kill, but he “enjoyed the killing”, which shows his unscrupulous attitude and total disregard for human life.

Terming Kasab “a snake in human form, Satan and Ravana both together, an agent of the devil, devil in human form and a disgrace to entire humanity”, Nikam said the terror attacks were carried out with previous planning and extreme cruelty in which even members of the police force were killed.

Speaking to reporters outside the court, Nikam described Kasab as “worse than a beast” for the cruelty he exhibited. The terrorist was “unhappy” when he did not find a big crowd at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus on Nov 26, 2008 night as they reached late. Kasab and his associate Abu Ismail, according to Nikam, wanted to kill more people. “His tamanna (desire) to kill more people could not be fulfilled, and he was unhappy - this exhibits his ‘pashu ki bhawna’ (bestial mentality).”

Not mincing words in his arguments, Nikam said comparing Kasab to a ‘junglee janwar’ (wild animal) would be an insult to animals as wild animals are satiated when they have eaten, but Kasab and his cohorts wanted to inflict maximum damage to people.

He also told the court that the attack was a premeditated and pre-planned conspiracy. Of the 72 people, including women and children, killed by Kasab and Abu Ismail at CST and Cama Hospital, 14 were policemen. The killing was without provocation.

Nikam told the court that Kasab’s laughing face, captured on camera and presented to court, showed that he was “enjoying the killing”. “Though today he has his face bowed (in the court), this is not his real face. He is worse than any beast, the cruelty he has exhibited, shows that he is a killing machine and the manufacturing factory is in Pakistan.”

Nikam said that words to describe the “mrityu tandav” (dance of death) unleashed by Kasab and the nine other terrorists in Mumbai failed him. “I have told the court that I am proud of my vocabulary, but it failed me and I had to rely on a Sanskrit couplet to ask - ‘What should I say?’

The killing of Amar Singh Solanki, navigator of the boat ‘Kuber’, by Kasab was done in the way a “kasai” or butcher would kill a goat. “There is no right for a kasai like him to live. There should be no forgiveness for him.”

Demanding death penalty for Kasab, Nikam told Tahaliyani that this would meet the end of justice, serve as a deterrent not only to Kasab but also as a signal to like-minded people.

“If we don’t award the death penalty (to Kasab), India would remain a soft target,” Nikam declared before Kasab’s lawyer K.P. Pawar began his arguments.