Mumbai:
May 3, 2010, is Judgement Day. The day Ajmal Amir Kasab, the sole terrorist captured alive in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, will be sentenced.
Trial ended in the case on Wednesday after the conclusion of arguments, and special judge M L Tahaliyani announced that he would pronounce the verdict on May 3.
The memories of another Wednesday, of gun shots and blasts, horror and despair, an entire country being held hostage are still sharp in the mind. May 3 may finally begin bring justice and closure for the worst terror attack India has ever seen. An attack that saw 166 people die in Mumbai's most iconic locations. (
Read: What Kasab did to Mumbai on 26/11)
The end of Kasab's trial comes at a time when India is pressing to gain access to one of the key plotters of the attack, US national David Coleman Headley. "We will press for access to Headley", Home Minister P Chidambaram said in Delhi. (
Watch: Pressing for Headley access, says Chidambaram)
Key now is the Pakistani hand in 26/11. (
Watch: Pak Army too behind 26/11, says Ujjwal Nikam)
Shortly after Kasab was captured in November 2008, he confessed to the police and the videotaped statement provided the first concrete evidence of the Pakistani hand.
But the trial, which lasted almost a year, saw him swinging between defiance and repentance. Sometimes giggling, breaking down, confessing and then, denying his involvement. (
Read: Kasab's flip-flops during trial)
Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said Kasab followed "the al Qaeda manual by changing his stand and trying to mislead the court. He once claimed an attempt was being made to poison him and showed white powder which turned out to be rice flour."
And as the trial wound up, came the audacious claim that he was just an innocent tourist framed by the police. (
Read: Key moments in 26/11 trial)
Kasab's lawyer K P Pawar has suggested that CCTV footage and photographs of Kasab were doctored and his confession manipulated. (
Watch: Kasab's lawyer says CCTV footage, photos doctored) But this is seen as an open and shut case. Kasab's changing statements pale in comparison to the massive evidence against him - nearly 700 witnesses examined, intercepted phone calls, evidence from the site of the attacks
But the bigger challenge is whether the evidence collected helps nail the Pakistani link and the involvement of state actors, including serving army officers.
"Not only on Kasab's evidence but also on other circumstantial evidence one can draw...inference that some Pakistani army persons are involved in this place. And I am very glad to say that after my this statement, after 7-8 days David Headley has also admitted same thing, naming the names of certain Pakistani army people . So one thing is very clear that the security apparatus in Pakistan is behind the attack on 26/11," Nikam has said.
The US agency FBI helped in probing the Pakistan angle, Nikam said: "FBI agents and experts came and deposed before the court on the basis of which we were able to prove that the terrorists had come from Karachi. The terrorists tried to destroy the GPS data which we retrieved with FBI help."