Mumbai high court upholds death sentence for Kasab

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Ujjwal Nikam, special prosecuter in 26/11 case, outside Mumbai high court

The Bombay high court on Monday upheld the death sentence to Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab for his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks that left 166 people dead.

A division bench of the court comprising justices Ranjana Desai and R.V. More also dismissed the Maharashtra government's petition against acquittal of two Indians, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, accused of aiding the commission of the crime.

24-year-old Kasab, the only one of the 10 Pakistani perpetrators of the attack to be captured alive, was sentenced to death by a special anti-terror court on May 6 last year.

Ansari and Ahmed had been, however, let off for want of adequate evidence by the trial court.

Kasab appeared briefly in the court through a video link wearing a white kurta with his head down. Kasab and his accomplices had landed at Budhwar Park in South Mumbai on November 26, 2008 night from Karachi by sea and went on a shooting spree at various city landmarks including CST railway terminus, iconic Taj Mahal and Oberoi Hotels, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital and Nariman House, a Jewish outreach centre, leaving 166 dead and many more wounded.