The Bombay High Court will pronounce its verdict on the confirmation of death sentence for arrested 26/11 gunman Ajmal Kasab on February 21. Justices Ranjana Desai and R V More said they were ready with the judgment on the LeT operative but needed time till February 21 for the paper work and compilation. The court will also give its judgment on the appeal filed by the state government against the acquittal of co-accused Faheem Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed on the day. Special judge ML Tahaliyani had acquitted them,giving them the benefit of doubt. Kasab who had been attending the High Court hearings through video conferencing did not appear on Monday. In the past too,he sat through only a few hearings,exhibiting antics from smiling,yawning or sleeping during the trial. He even spat at the webcam on one occasion and said he wanted to be tried in a US court. The special court had,on May 6 last year,sentenced Kasab to death,holding him responsible for the 26/11 attacks that left 166 dead and many wounded. Security forces had killed nine gunmen,who had come with Kasab from Pakistan,during the three-day attack. Judge Tahaliyani had accepted the prosecution case that Kasab and nine others had come from Karachi by sea and struck terror by firing on people. In Kasabs defence,his lawyer Amin Solkar had argued that the CDs of his CCTV grab at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station were not clear and they showed some other person who resembled Kasab. He had contended that Kasab was not a terrorist and his photos were morphed besides alleging that the police encounter at Girgaum was staged just to implicate his client. He had also claimed that Kasab was not involved in the killing of police officers Hemant Karkare,Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar.
