Mumbai: A special court will decide on Thursday whether to accept or reject the confession made by Ajmal Amiri Kasab, the sole surviving terrorist behind the November 26 Mumbai attacks.
Kasab insists that he did not make the confession to get a lesser punishment.
Kasab told Special Judge M.L. Tahaliyani that he did not admit to his guilt to seek mercy from the court and thus escape from a death penalty.
"I should be punished for whatever I have done in this world by the people and not by God," he told the judge.
With a smile playing on his face, Kasab urged the court to hang him if they believed that he was confessing in order to escape the death penalty.
On Monday, Kasab had stunned the court by admitting his guilt as regards the attacks. He gave a narration of what had happened right from the time he and nine other gunmen had left Karachi on a mission to terrorise Mumbai.
He also told the court that he was not tortured nor pressurised by anyone to make his admission of guilt.
However, his lawyer, Abbas Kazmi, said that Kasab was "mentally tortured during the last few days."
However, Special Public Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam said Kasab's admission of guilt should be accepted but not acted upon but kept aside to be considered later on.
Nikam said that Kasab's "so-called statement" was full of inconsistencies when compared to the original confession he had made earlier and during interrogation.
He also said Kasab now wanted to show he played a subordinate role in the attacks on Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Cama Hospital while making no mention of "the murder of policeman Tukaram Ombale".
Nikam said Kasab's strategy was to save his bosses and colleagues in Pakistan.
He said Section 188 of Pakistan's Code of Criminal Procedure rendered citizens and servants of the state liable to be tried in Pakistan for offences committed beyond the limits of Pakistan in certain cases.
