Kasab turns 22 today, but no cake in jail for him

Firstly, Kasab, who was born on September 13, 1987, according to jail records, is a high-risk prisoner lodged in a special, solitary cell which was refurbished exclusively to house him.

Secondly, he has no savings, unlike other prisoners who earn money inside the jail by working, to order a cake. Moreover, there is hardly any favourable sentiment for him among jail guards and officials to want to wish him.

"Under the jail manual, there are no provisions for allowing any inmate or convict to celebrate his birthday in prison," said Jail Superintendent Rajendra Dhamne.

"However, in many cases on humanitarian grounds, we allow inmates to celebrate their birthday with jail guards and other inmates. The inmate can order a 1 kg cake from the jail canteen, but he needs to order it well in advance."

Four jails in Maharashtra — Thane, Yerawada (Pune), Nashik and Nagpur— have in-house bakeries along with other small-scale industrial operations.

"If the inmate places an order for a cake, we send the request to the Thane prison bakery from where it is delivered on the mentioned day," said Dhamne adding that the variety available is limited and prisoners could order only from a list of existing flavours.

Abbas Kazmi, Kasab's lawyer who has in the past bought Urdu books for his client to ease his boredom, did not seem to be aware of Kasab's birthday.

"I will have to check his birthday in my records. Even if it is his birthday on Sunday, it would not matter to me personally as birthdays are private affairs and Kasab is my client and doesn't call for anything more than professional and legal support,"Abbas Kazmi said.

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