Pakistan terrorist Ajmal Kasab, sentenced to death in the 26/11 attack, on Tuesday pleaded the Supreme Court to convert his punishment into life imprisonment with his lawyer submitting that he was exploited by the masterminds of the Mumbai carnage in the name of “false and distorted religious ideology” to commit the crime and was not involved in the conspiracy to wage the war against India.
Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, provided by the Supreme Court as amicus curiae to plead Kasab’s case, argued before a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and C.K. Prasad that the young age of the Pakistani national also be taken into account for converting his death sentence into the life imprisonment and the “high cost” being incurred on his security in jail should not become a parameter for deciding his appeal. Mr Ramachandran was provided counsel to Kasab after the top court had converted his letter sent from the jail directly to the Chief Justice of India into his appeal against the Bombay high court order, confirming the capital punishment to him.
“The cost of keeping Kasab alive should not be the consideration for the court to decide whether to hang him or not. It is a matter only to be decided by the executive and the legislature,” Mr Ramachandran submitted.
While at least seven main points were raised by Mr Ramachandran to make a case for converting Kasab’s death sentence into life imprisonment, the top court during a question-answer session pointed to the counsel that the trial of the Pakistani national was not like any other murder cases but “entirely different” considering its peculiar facts and circumstances.