After his unceremonious ouster from the 26/11 case, a sense of humiliation haunts Abbas Kazmi, the former lawyer of the lone surviving gunman Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab. The fact that he was branded as “a liar,” by the special sessions court, is acting as a thorn in his flesh.“Calling me a liar is a disgrace to me,” Mr. Kazmi told journalists reporters on Tuesday.
It was the first time he opened up to the media since his removal. Mr. Kazmi, who had on earlier occasions referred to the pressure and the burden of representing Kasab, sees no respite in washing his hands off his high-profile client. “Relief would be the next stage. The first stage is the humiliation, which I am going through. Apart from the work pressure, the pressure from humiliation is too much,” he said.
When he was appointed, Mr. Kazmi had drawn a lot of flak from the public at large; his own position in the Islam Gymkhana was revoked after he took on the responsibility of defending Kasab. Mr. Kazmi remained non-committal about his legal manoeuvres in response to the courts order.
He avowed having high respect for the court. “I cannot raise any fingers on the honourable court. I have great respect for the court.”However, he is keeping his legal options open. “I do not want to take any action, but let's see what my legal fraternity has to say. I would be meeting my fellow lawyers. I would be discussing the procedure I followed in court and the termination of my services. My side has to be clarified to the people,” he said.
According to Mr. Kazmi, he had adhered to court procedures and his only submission was that his application be taken on record. “That is the procedure. Whenever an application is filed from one side, the other side has to reply. My legal submission was, out of the 339 witnesses, how many are of formal character. Then we could have proceeded.” The court fired him owing to his “insistence,” among other reasons.
