The arguments began in court 49 before Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice RV More through video conference to enable Kasab hear the proceedings from the Arthur Road Jail where he is imprisoned.
Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab grinned, yawned, pretended to be asleep and remained largely indifferent to the proceedings as the Bombay high court heard his death confirmation case on Monday.
There was no sign of remorse or jitters on the face of the 26/11 terrorist as he followed the proceedings via video conferencing from the Arthur Road jail premises. He will be a step closer to death if the court confirms the capital punishment awarded to him by a special court earlier.
Kasab, clad in jail uniform and sporting a thin moustache and light stubble, took seat before the camera at 11.07am. He started yawning within the first hour of the hearing. Initially, he seemed bemused at the sight of court room 49 and smirked.
As special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam opened the arguments in the case describing the November 26, 2008, terror attacks as a “classic case of sponsored terrorism”, by Pakistani elements with “deep-seeded hatred for India,” Kasab listened intently for some time; then he got distracted and fidgety.
Nikam told the court that the attacks have shown the “filthy face of terrorism” to the world and “millions of Indians were mentally and emotionally assaulted” through them. He started with the Lashkar-e-Taiba recruits who planned the terror attack between December 2007 and November 2008 and proceeded towards Kasab’s role in the execution of the deadly attacks.
When Nikam told the court that Kasab had beheaded Amarsingh Solanki on MV Kuber, an Indian trawler, prior to landing at Badhwar Park, Kasab laughed with one hand covering his face. As Nikam continued to read witness accounts, Kasab was seen yawning, at times after every two minutes, grinning, scratching himself and rubbing his eyes.
He even stood up to leave once, but was made to sit down by jail officials. He also rested his head on the table and sat up straight after a jail official poked him.
He rested his head against the wall, mumbled something to himself with his eyes closed.
Around 12:40, the jail officials sought the court’s permission to let Kasab take a bathroom break after he was seen showing his pinky on the screen. He returned in a few minutes and continued to break into random smiles and laughter. Post the lunch break, as the courtroom re-lived the gory moments of the attack at CST, Kasab yawned through the proceedings and even lifted his shirt to clean his nose.
Apart from permitting him to go to the bathroom, the court paid little attention to his antics and heard Nikam’s submissions. Nikam said that the prosecution had made out sufficient case to prove a criminal conspiracy that attract the “rarest of rare” punishment for the accused.
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