Hearing on confirmation of Kasab sentence today,his appeal later

The reference for confirmation of the death sentence,communicated from the lower court to the High Court,has been listed for directions before a division bench of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice V K Tahilramani.

It looks like Kasab’s appeal might stretch till the end of this month or even next month. “We have just received the copy of the evidence and it runs into thousands of pages. We will need some time before we can file the appeal,” said advocate Farhana Shah,who will assist Kasab’s counsel Amin Solkar. She said it might take even two months.

Public prosecutor P A Pol,meanwhile,said he has not yet received the police draft of the appeal against the twin acquittals. Pol had written to Joint CP (Crime) Himanshu Roy on July 20 urging him to coordinate with special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam so that the appeal memo and application could be submitted to the prosecutor’s office by July 30.

Ansari is accused of preparing maps of the 26/11 target sites and Ahmed of handing these over to Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives in Pakistan.

Nikam will be the special public prosecutor not only in the appeal against the acquittals but also in the case for the confirmation of the death sentence.