Observing that the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist
attacks had shocked the collective conscience of Indian people, the Supreme
Court on 29.08.2012 confirmed the death sentence awarded to the prime accused,
Ajmal Kasab, by the trial court for waging war against India.
In its 398-page judgment, a Bench of Justices
Aftab Alam and C.K. Prasad said: “This case has the element of conspiracy as no
other case. The appellant was part of a conspiracy hatched across the border to
wage war against the government of India, and lethal arms and explosives were
collected with the intention of waging war against the government of India.”
The Bench rejected Kasab’s argument that he
was not given a fair trial. It accepted the argument of senior counsel for
Maharashtra Gopal Subramanium that he was given legal assistance right from the
stage of trial, and said Kasab’s plea (that he was not given legal assistance
from the beginning), by itself, would not vitiate the proceedings.
Writing the judgment, Justice Alam said: “The
conspiracy was to launch a murderous attack on Mumbai, regarding it as the
financial centre of the country; to kill as many Indians and foreign nationals
as possible; to take Indians and foreign nationals… hostages for using them as
bargaining chips in regard to the terrorists’ demands; and to try to incite
communal strife and insurgency, all with the intent to weaken the country from
within. In short, this is a case of terrorist attack from across the border. It
has a magnitude of unprecedented enormity on all scales. The conspiracy… was as
deep and large as it was vicious. The preparation and training for the
execution was as thorough as the execution was ruthless. In terms of loss of
life and property, and more importantly in its traumatising effect, this case
stands alone, or it is at least the very rarest of rare to come before this
court since the birth of the Republic. Therefore, it should also attract the
rarest of rare punishments.”
“Absolute
certainty”
