Kasab plea: commute death to life term

Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab, sole convict in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case, on Tuesday pleaded with the Supreme Court to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.

Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab, sole convict in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case, on Tuesday pleaded with the Supreme Court to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.

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Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, appointed by SC to represent Kasab, said the cost of keeping a terrorist alive should not be a consideration while court punishes a convict. “It was for the legislature to consider the cost criteria,” he told the court. He also told the court that Kasab should be treated like any other accused.

But, Ramachandran’s arguments prompted the bench headed by Justice Afatb Alam to observe that the Pakistani gunman's trial was unlike any ordinary murder trial.

“There may be hundreds of murder trials going in this country...but this is entirely different. Application of law is one thing but the manner of trial is different,” the court said.

Ramachandran concluded arguments on behalf of Kasab whose conviction in the case was stayed on October 10 last year. Kasab has claimed in his appeal before SC that he was brainwashed like a “robot” into committing the heinous crime in the name of “God.”