Hang Kasab, demand 'netas'

Even as Pakistan terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Kasab filed a mercy petition, political parties have demanded that his plea be dismissed without delay and pave way for his hanging.

A senior officer in Arthur Road jail where Kasab has been kept in a three-tier security, said: “Kasab has been apprised regularly about all the procedures which entails him to plead his case before the courts and President of India.”

After Kasab got a copy of the Supreme Court’s verdict of upholding his death sentence, he expressed his desire to seek mercy from the President.

“The mercy petition is part of the procedure allowed within the laid parameters,” said home minister RR Patil.

“We have made it clear that individuals like Kasab, who have waged a war against India, cannot be pardoned. It is our ardent appeal to the Centre to complete the procedures without further delay to enable execution of death sentence against Kasab,” he added.

Even chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has indicated that after all the procedures are over, death sentence should be executed in Kasab’s case.

Senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde said, “Where is the question of mercy? Kasab is not an ordinary criminal. He deserves the highest punishment which is death sentence.”

The Congress and NCP leaders said that the country cannot waive out the laid norms “where even the most dreaded and anti-national criminal has the right to seek recourse to legal battle and Presidential pardon”.

Shiv Sena group leader in the state assembly and spokesperson Subhash Desai said the party had sought a Constitutional amendment to ensure that only Indians who had been convicted be allowed to submit a mercy petition to the President. He urged President Pranab Mukherjee and the Centre to reject Kasab’s mercy petition.