Ajmal Kasab’s detention: Indian official refutes torture claims

Indian officials on Wednesday refuted allegations of the lone surviving attacker of the 2009 Mumbai attack Ajmal Kasab that he was denied a fair trial, Times of India reported on Wednesday. Gopal Subramaniam, appearing before the Indian Supreme Court on behalf of the Maharashtra state’s government, said that Kasab never was tortured or maltreated by authorities and there has been no failure of constitutional rights given to him.  Subramaniam also submitted that the death sentence handed down to Kasab is a permissible means of punishment. Referring to the entire sequence of events leading to the 26/11 attacks, he submitted that had Kasab not been caught alive, it would have been impossible to know that ‘outsiders’ were involved in the mayhem. Kasab, 24, had on Tuesday pleaded with the court to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.


Published in The Express Tribune, February 16^th, 2012.