Mumbai: Terrorist-convict Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, who is awaiting death sentence in the 26/11 attack case, is being treated for dengue in the Arthur Road prison where he is lodged.
Informed prison sources said that 25-year-old Kasab developed a high fever four to five days ago and while being treated by the doctors at the jail, he showed symptoms of dengue.
“A team doctors from the state-run J J Hospital is now treating Kasab — lodged in a special cell at the jail — for dengue. Owing to security considerations, he will continue to undergo treatment inside the jail, as of now,” sources said.
Kasab is the second known person in Mumbai to have contracted dengue in the recent past. Earlier, Bollywood filmmaker Yash Chopra had died of dengue on October 21.
A medical report made available by the Lilavati Hospital, where Chopra was admitted, had mentioned the filmmaker died due to “sepses with pneumonia, with multiple-organ failure, with dengue.” Later, a team of doctors appointed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had confirmed that Chopra had indeed died of dengue fever and its complications.
It is not clear yet as to the magnitude of the dengue that Kasab is suffering from. While doctors attending on Kasab themselves are not speaking, sources said: “If the need arises, the jail authorities will shift Kasab to a government hospital,” sources said.
Kasab filed a mercy petition before the Indian President Pranab Mukherjee in the third week of September this year. Routed through the Maharashtra government and Union Home Ministry which have recommended the President against Pakistani terrorist being shown any mercy, the petition is now pending before Mukherjee.
Kasab was among the ten terrorists who launched a terror attack on Mumbai on the night of November 26, 2008 and carried on till the morning of November 29, 2008. In all 166 people, including foreigners and policemen, were killed in the attack.
While nine terrorists were killed, Kasab was the lone terrorist to be arrested during the attack on Mumbai’s various landmarks including Hotel Taj and CST railway terminus.
A trial court had on May 6, 2010, awarded capital punishment to the Pakistani terrorist for his role in the 26/11 attacks. Subsequently, the Bombay High Court confirmed his death sentence on February 21,2011.
Subsequently, on August 28, 2012, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Aftab Alam and C K Prasad dismissed Kasab’s plea challenging his conviction and death sentence confirmed by the Bombay High Court. The bench had also rejected his contention that he was not given a free and fair trial in the case.
Currently, as many as 11 mercy petitions of death-row convicts are pending before the Indian president. It remains to be seen as to how long it will take for the president to decide on Kasab’s mercy petition.
Kasab is currently lodged in a specially-created bullet resistant and bomb-proof cell. The cell has been specially designed to protect Kasab from a bomb attack or any possible acts of sabotage.
