In a dramatic turn of events, Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist in the November Mumbai terror attack, today pleaded guilty to his role in the crime and sought a quick end to the trial, a development that came as a major boost to the prosecution.
“I plead guilty,” the 22-year-old Pakistani national told the Special Court in the Arthur Road jail here trying him for various charges, including the shooting in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station that killed over 50 people and injured 90 others on November 26 last year.
The prosecution and the police were surprised over the sudden turn of events and Special Public Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam described Kasab's decision as a “new tactics for lesser punishment”.
He said the confession was a big victory for the prosecution. “The cat is out of the bag,” he added.
Equally surprised was Special Judge M L Tahiliyani, who has been conducting the trial from April 17 who asked him why he was suddenly confessing.
To the question, “Why did you not confess when the charges were framed earlier?” Kasab, who did his confession in two sessions, said, “Initially, Pakistan had not accepted my nationality. Now that they have, I am confessing”.
“Now that I have confessed, end the trial and give the verdict,” he told the judge.
The confession, tracing the events from his training in Pakistan by the handlers there and his journey into Mumbai through the sea, came on the 65th day of the trial and two days after Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency had filed a chargesheet in a Rawalpindi court naming Kasab as its national.
He had earlier pleaded not guilty and claimed he was a minor. It came after a very brief consultation with his lawyer Abbas Kazmi, as the prosecution’s 135th witness stepped into the box for giving evidence.
The Special Judge heard Kasab owning up his involvement in the attacks in CST and the nearby Cama hospital in south Mumbai and later killing three policemen, apart from planting a bomb in taxi.
Nikam said Kasab did not utter the name of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafeez Mohd Saeed even once during the confession today, though he had earlier confessed to the magistrate all the details about Saeed.
However, Kasab named LeT operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and other professionals as having trained them in Pakistan for terrorist activities.
He also claimed that the trainers were themselves not aware for what mission they were being trained.
In a significant statement, Kasab named an Indian, Abu Jindal, as involved in the terror conspiracy. This is for the first time that Kasab has confessed about the role of an Indian in the terror attack.
Even in his statement before a magistrate and the police, Kasab had not revealed about Jindal or any other Indian.
He said Jindal trained him and the nine other slain terrorists on how to speak Hindi during their training course in Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) camps in Pakistan.
Commenting on this, special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said that Kasab was deliberately making this statement.
“He has some designs in making such a confession because earlier he had never disclosed the involvement of any Indian. I strongly suspect that he is not telling the truth,” Nikam said.
The court is yet to decide on whether or not it is going to accept Kasab's confession, Nikam said.
Kasab admitted that he came in a boat from Karachi along with nine other terrorists to carry out the dastardly acts on the night of November 26 in four places including the Taj and Oberoi Hotels.
In the witness box, Kasab described how he and slain terrorist Abu Ismail opened fire at the CST station.
“I was firing and Abu was hurling hand grenades. I was in front of Abu who had taken such a position that no one could see him. I fired at a policeman after which there was no firing from the police's side),” Kasab told the court.
