Kasab waged war against India to destabilize the government, rule judges

MUMBAI - The strongest aggravating circumstance which nailed Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab was the manner in which he waged war against the Government of India, the Bombay High Court noted Monday in its 1,215-page judgment while upholding the death sentence on the Pakistani terrorist.

The conspiracy was hatched in Pakistan with the objective of destablising the Indian government and weaken India’s economic might.

“He (Kasab) indulged in mindless killings of innocent people with a view to overawing Government of India and achieve cessation of a part of Indian territory. There was an attempt to create ill-will and disaffection between different religions of India so as to damage its secular fabric. Waging war is a serious crime which calls for deterrent punishment,” a division bench of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice R.V. More said.

To achieve their diabolic motives, Kasab and his associates engaged in a battle with police and commandos, challenged the Indian Army and state police and killed (many of) them.

They also made attempts to take people hostage to make the Indian government helpless and accede to their unlawful demands.

“The terrorist attack made by A1-Kasab was not like any other terrorist attack which merely results in the breach of police tranquility. It was an attack on the Government of India whose stability is most essential and crucial for the very existence of democratic India. A1-Kasab challenged the sovereign authority of Republic of India which offence calls for the severest punishment,” the judges declared.

In doing all this, the judges noted that Kasab never showed any repentance. On the contrary, he loudly proclaimed that he wanted to create more Fidayeens by making himself a role model.

Stating that it was difficult to agree with the defence argument that he was mentally disturbed or not sane, the judges said: “In our short interaction with A1-Kasab on Video Conferencing, we observed his demeanour. He did not appear to be repentant at all. He was perfectly sane. He was in proper frame of mind. All his actions, the manner in which he committed the crime, his cleverly trying to change his stand in the court and other attendant circumstances portray a scheming mind and not a mind of a mentally unstable person.”

Rejecting outright the defence argument that Kasab was a Fidayeen who had come here to die and his death would make him a martyr, the judges said that on their GPS systems, Kasab and his accomplices had saved the routes from Mumbai to Karachi.

“There was a desire to go back after successfully achieving the despicable target and embark upon similar activities. Any misplaced or unwarranted sympathy would be counterproductive. The argument that he will become a martyr and, therefore, death sentence should not be awarded to him does not deter us from confirming death sentence. We want those who are desirous of emulating him to know that courts do not take a kindly view of such people,” Justice Desai and Justice More emphatically ruled.

They added that there is barely any scope for a person like Kasab to be rehabilitated or reformed if given a life sentence.

“The strong arm of the law must deal with A1-Kasab firmly, otherwise a wrong signal will be sent that the courts are ineffective in dealing with crimes as serious as this. Soft handling of a crime like this will erode the public confidence in the efficacy of law,” the judges said, upholding the death verdict.