Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone Pakistani gunman captured during the 26/11 terror attack, today told the Mumbai trial court it was free to sentence him to death by hanging if there were doubts that he had pleaded guilty with the intention to escape the death penalty for a lesser sentence.

Standing in the dock in a white kurta-pyjama, Kasab told the court: “Agar kisiko aitraaz hai... agar kisi ke dil mein shak hai ki main phaansi se bachne ke liye, riyayat ke

liye, yeh kar raha hoon toh beshak phaansi ki saza dijiye (If anyone feels that I am confessing to escape the death penalty or am seeking leniency, then sentence me to death by hanging).”

Kasab, who had pleaded guilty to the crime on Monday, told the court: “Mein ne is duniya mein jo kiya hai uski sazaa duniyawalon se hi milna chahiye, khuda ki sazaa nahin chahiye (I should be punished by this world for what I did here, not by the Almighty)”.

His lawyer Abbas Kazmi said: “He has lost his mental balance and is expecting that he will go to heaven if sentenced by the court.”

Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said Kasab was “trying to gain sympathy from the public but one should not forget the act he committed... a terrorist like Kasab who killed more than 50 people”.

Kasab’s plea to hang him came when Nikam was asking the court to verify whether the guilty plea was made voluntarily or under duress, and that his lawyer Kazmi should verify it. Kazmi stood up and said “my client has himself made it clear and now it is the discretion of the court to accept or reject it.”

... contd.