Death penalty upheld, Qasab remorseless

ADVOCATES and other people present in the courtroom were struck by the lack of remorse on Ajmal Qasab's face yesterday when the Bombay High Court upheld the death penalty awarded to him by the special court.

During Ajmal Qasab's hearing yesterday he was sporting a grin and did not flinch even once

"Qasab never showed any remorse and even said at one point that he was sorry he'd arrived late at Mumbai's main railway station, since there were fewer people to kill," Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said after the hearing.

During yesterday's proceedings, Qasab was sporting a grin and did not flinch even once when a division bench of Justices Ranjana Desai and R V More stated, "There is no scope of reform or rehabilitation of the convicted accused.

It is a rarest of rare case and the court cannot be more confident than it is today that death penalty must be given."

In May 2010, clad in a white kurta-pyjama, Qasab stood with his head bowed at the special court at Arthur road jail when Judge M L Tahaliyani declared him guilty of the murder of 166 persons during the brazen terror strike.

"Tumhe bharat ke khilaf jung chedne aur terrorist act karne aur logon ka khoon karne ke liye doshi paaya gaya hai," Tahilyani had told him. Three days later, when he was sentenced to be hanged by the neck till death, he had stood straight without uttering anything.

Even during those proceedings, Qasab smiled, misbehaved and even spat on the video camera through which he was attending them.

Meanwhile, the court dismissed the State's petition against the acquittal of the two Indian accused, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, and said that there is no corroboration of evidence to prove their involvement.