Kasab buried in the prison itself

Within an hour of being hanged, Ajmal Kasab was buried on the premises of Yerwada Central Prison in Pune. A maulana had been called to perform his last rites.

After medical officers at the gallows declared him dead around 8am, his post-mortem was carried out inside the jail. The post-mortem took 45 minutes, after which his body was taken to where the funeral of executed prisoners is held if no one claims the body or if the government does not want to hand over it over to relatives.

Several prisoners had been given the job of digging his grave on Tuesday. To ensure that the exact spot where he was to be buried was not disclosed, prison authorities got six graves dug out at short distances from each other.

Sources in the prison said senior prison and police officials, including additional director general of police Meeran Borwankar, a magistrate and a woman doctor were among those present at the burial spot.  Borwankar is in charge of state prisons.

The last rites were a brief ceremony and lasted for only a few minutes. “A maulana, who had been present in the prison since Kasab was being prepared for the execution, recited the Quran while Kasab’s body was lowered into his grave,” a prison officer said, adding that other prisoners filled up the remaining graves within minutes.

General Arun Kumar Vaidya’s assassins, Harjinder Singh ‘Jinda’ and Sukhdev Singh ‘Sukha’ were also hanged and cremated in the prison in October 1992.