Mumbai, Aug 30 (IANS) The Bombay High Court Monday put off till Sep 20 its hearing on the confirmation of the death sentence awarded to Mumbai attack convict and Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab.
The court postponed the hearing after Kasab’s lawyers sought more time to file his appeal against the conviction.
Kasab’s lawyers, Amin Solkar and Farhana Shah, said they were shocked after 22-year-old Kasab feigned amnesia and refused to recognize them when they met him in Arthur Road Jail last week.
The duo sought more time from the high court stating that they were still in the process of drafting the appeal against Kasab’s conviction in a special trial court in May.
Accepting their plea, a division bench comprising Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice R. V. More fixed hearing Sep 20.
Drawing the court’s attention to some media reports about Kasab’s ‘amnesia’, government counsel Ujjwal Nikam urged that if the terrorist is not interested (in the appeal), then the high court should go ahead with the confirmation of the death penalty for his role in the Nov 26, 2008 Mumbai terror attack.
The judges, however, said that a convict had the right to file an appeal against his conviction and that the court could not go merely by the content of some news report.
At the next hearing, the court will also take up Maharashtra Government’s appeal against the acquittal of Kasab’s co-accused, Faheem Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed.
The court earlier admitted the state’s appeal in the matter and directed Mumbai Police to issue arrest warrants against Ansari and Ahmed.
Presently, both Ansari and Ahmed are lodged in Uttar Pradesh jails for their alleged role in the 2008 attack on a Central Reserve Police Force camp in Rampur.
On May 3, Special Judge M.L. Tahaliyani held Kasab guilty on five counts in the killing of 166 people during the Mumbai terror attack.
