Kasab will be asked to appeal: Lawyer

MUMBAI - Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab will be advised to appeal in the Supreme Court against his death sentence the Bombay High Court confirmed Monday for his role in the 26/11 attack, his lawyer Farhana Shah said.

“We will certainly advice Kasab on filing an appeal in the Supreme Court when we meet him,” Shah said.

“We will be able to give him certain pointers after we read the judgement copy, but we will make sure he knows there is still one chance and that he can file an appeal in 30 days,” she added.

Shah also mentioned that her role was restricted to defending Kasab in the Bombay High Court.

“It is now up to him to decide whether or not he wants to appeal to the Supreme Court,” she said.

Shah, however, expressed her concern, saying that the case moved too fast.

“The case moved too fast and we could not defend Kasab. There are several loopholes in the case. He did not get a fair trial,” she said.

Special Public Prosecutor Ujjawal Nikam, on the other hand, described Kasab as “Nautanki ka Khalnayak” and said this was a victory of justice and defeat of drama by the Pakistani terrorist.

Speaking to reporters, a beaming Nikam said that “the storm of terror unleashed by Kasab and his accomplices has finally ended” and that there would be mourning and chest-beating in the camps of his handlers.

Welcoming the acquittal of Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed, their lawyers R.B. Mokashi and Ejaz Naqvi said that the duo was wrongly accused of a crime they did not commit.

“I welcome the judgement and will be able to speak more about the same after I read the verdict copy,” Mokashi said.

“I am glad that Ansari’s link to the attack could not be established. He has been wrongly accused of providing the maps of the spots where the attack took place to the Lashkar-e-Toiba, which is not the case,” he said.

Kasab’s former lawyer Abbaz Kazmi, however, said that there were certain points that could have been used to defend Kasab.

Kazmi, who was removed before he presented his defence arguments in the court, also agreed that the evidence against Kasab was overwhelming.

“Inspite of the overwhelming evidences, there were certain points that could have been used to defend Kasab,” he said.

“There were so many technical aspects which could have been thoroughly examined and argued better,” he added when asked to elaborate.