Kasab convicted on evidence, not confession: Chidambaram

NEW DELHI - Pakistani national Ajmal Amir Kasab was convicted for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai carnage on the basis of evidence gathered against him and not on the basis of his confession, Home Minister P. Chidmbaram said Thursday, dismissing demands for a tough anti-terrorism law.

“Kasab was convicted not on the basis of his confession but on the basis of the evidence gathered against him,” he said while replying to a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the functioning of the home ministry.

“This was not only oral evidence but a wealth of material that was painstakingly gathered. We were able to reconstruct the path (of the 10 attackers) from Karachi to Mumbai. We were able to track mobile phone conversations within hours of the attack,” the home minister said.

He noted that through the use of technology, investigators “were able to retrieve material from damaged mobile phones. In a way, this was phone tapping,” he said in a reference to the controversy that rocked parliament on the alleged phone tapping of prominent politicians.

Speaking about the course of the trial, he said: “We did not create a Guantanamo Bay. We did not create a military court. Kasab was tried in a normal civil court, except that the judge was designated a special judge.” He said the trial was over in 12 months.

Rejecting the Bharatiya Janata Party’s demand for tough laws on the lines of the now repealed POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act), he said provisions of the law would not have helped in the trial of the 26/11 accused.

POTA was repealed by the United Progressive Alliance government after it was elected to power in 2004.

Kasab was Thursday sentenced to death for his role in the November 2008 Mumbai carnage by a special court that said he had no right to live.