NEW DELHI: While India struggles to get access to David Coleman Headley, an American of Pakistani origin and one of the masterminds of the 26/11 terror strikes in Mumbai held in a Chicago jail, a trial court in Mumbai is scheduled to pronounce judgement on May 3 after lawyers closed arguments for both the defence and the prosecution in the trial of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman caught during the deadly terror attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. Judge ML Tahaliyani, presiding over the special trial court instituted for the trial in what is widely seen as India’s equivalent of the heinous September 11, 2001 (9/11) terror attacks, announced today that he would pronounce his verdict on May 3.

Hearings were concluded today in the high security court built within the premises of the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai, where the Pakistani-born Kasab has been lodged since his arrest in November 2008. A Special court was instituted to ensure a speedy trial in the 26/11 terrorist attacks case because of the “extraordinary nature” of the crime. Judicial proceedings in this case began around a year ago, on April 17, 2009. Normally, given India’s inordinately slow judicial process, a criminal trial can take years, even decades, before a verdict is delivered. According to Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, Kasab has been accused under dozens of sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Nikam had, during his arguments in the court said, “By firing at people indiscriminately in Mumbai, Kasab and other conspirators wanted to destabilise the government and break the political and economic order of the country.” The acts of Ajmal Kasab and others accused in the 26/11 terror siege amounted to “waging war against India,” punishable with the death penalty or life imprisonment, the prosecution has argued.

Kasab’s defence lawyers sought to delay the trial proceedings by claiming he was a minor (less than 18 years), but did not succeed once DNA evidence was produced, while the accused himself first confessed to the court his role in the attacks, describing his training with the Pakistan-backed Lashkar e Toiba (LET) terrorist outfit, and then retracted his confession., even denying his Pakistani origin and presence in the television footage and photographic evidence of the 26/11 attacks.

Through the trial Kasab has changed his statement thrice. The prosecution examined 653 witnesses to prove its case that the LET carried out the attacks in Mumbai by sending 10 terrorists by boat from Karachi.

“This is the first time

we have concluded the fastest closure of a terrorist trial,” Nikam said.