“Kasab is a trained commando. No question of remorse. He plays the psychological game. He smiles, looks innocent or pretends to shed tears. These are tricks to get media sympathy,” he said.

Abbas Kazmi, Kasab’s attorney, said his client is becoming “increasingly gloomy” and has “a sense of hopelessness written all over his face.”

When the trial began in April, Kasab, speaking through his attorney, pleaded not guilty and sought to retract his confession, saying it was made under duress, the paper said.

The trial is conducted mostly in English and Marathi, the official language of Maharashtra state, neither of which Kasab knows well. He often looks bored or bewildered, but when witnesses recount the horrors of that November night, he appears to try hard to follow.