ONAM GIFT: AJMAL KASAB TO BE HANGED

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the plea of Ajmal Kasab in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case and upheld the sentence of death penalty awarded by the Bombay high court.Kasab and his nine fellow jihadis had attacked CST railway station, Cama Hospital, Vinoli Chaupati junction, Oberoi Hotel, Taj Hotel, Nariman House and Leopold cafe in Mumbai on November 26, 2008 resulting in killing of 166 people and injuring 238 others.

A two-judge bench of the apex court pronounced the judgement at 10.30am.

The bench said the first and foremost crime committed by Kasab was that he participated in a conspiracy to wage war against India.

The apex court rejected the Kasab's plea that he did not get a fair trial and observed that there is no prejudice that has been caused to him.

The apex court said the trial court had made repeated attempts o provide him with a lawyer but he had spurned the offer initially and said he did not want to accept Indian lawyers.

The judges said that in the totality of facts, evidences and circumstances the court had no option but to impose death sentence on Kasab.

Earlier, the Bombay high court had upheld the trial court's verdict to award death sentence to Kasab, the lone surviving gunman who was part of the 10-member fidayeen team that attacked Mumbai.

Kasab was convicted of criminal conspiracy, waging war against the nation, Section 302 of IPC (murder) and terror related provisions of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The HC had agreed with the trial court that the case against Kasab fell in the rarest of rare category and upheld the decision to award death penalty to the Pakistani.