Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman of the 26/11 Mumbai attack, has decided to challenge the death penalty recently awarded to him by the Bombay High Court.
“He wants to challenge the order,” Farhana Shah, Kasab's counsel, told The Hindu on Wednesday.
“We met for hardly five minutes. I told him about the court's order. So far, we haven't received a copy of the High Court's order,” she said, adding that Kasab be able to appeal in the Supreme Court only after he received a copy of the court order.
“He can file an appeal in 90 days,” she said. “He does not have counsel anymore, so he can apply through the jail superintendent to the Supreme Court,” she said.
The Supreme Court's legal aid panel will give free legal aid to Kasab and will decide about providing representation to him in the court.
The court will take a call on whether the matter should be heard on a priority basis or not.
The High Court had taken up the matter on a priority and a separate courtroom was set aside for the matter. The procedure took four months.
The entire procedure will be repeated in the Supreme Court wherein arguments will have to made afresh and the previous orders by the High Court and the trial court will be re-examined.
Meanwhile, there is still no proposal as yet to shift Kasab out of the Arthur Road Jail.
Surendra Kumar, Inspector-General, Prisons, said the Prisons Department had not yet decided anything. “We will start thinking about it within a week,” he said.