I was not tortured to confess: Kasab

Mumbai, July 22 (ANI): Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist involved the terror attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, on Wednesday told the court that he was under no pressure to confess.

"I was neither torture nor put under any pressure," Kasab told the court.

"Agar kisiko aitraaz hai...agar kisi ke dil mein shak hai ki main phansi se bachne ke liye yeh kar raha hoon toh beshak phansi ki saza dijiye. (If anyone feels that I am confessing to escape the death penalty then the court may without doubt hang me)," Kasab said.

Defence lawyer Abbas Kazmi had claimed that his client was being tortured and that he made the confession under pressure.

On the other hand, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said: "There is need to know reason if there's a ploy behind Kasab confession."

Meanwhile, police will verify the involvement of an Indian named Abu Jundal in the Mumbai terror attacks conspiracy, as claimed by Kasab.Kasab had said that Jundal had taught him and the nine other slain terrorists to speak Hindi at LeT training camps in Pakistan.

Confessing before the court, he had said that he and his slain partner Abu Ismail were directed to start firing indiscriminately at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), take hostages and attack those policemen who tried to rescue the hostages.

Narrating the entire plot, Kasab had confessed that he came along with nine other terrorists in a boat from Karachi. He also owned up for his involvement in the 26/11 terror attacks at the CST and at Cama Hospital.

He had named Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative and alleged mastermind Zakir-ur-Rehman Lakhvi a key conspirator, saying he was instructed to conduct a fidayeen (suicide) attack in Mumbai.

The trial in the terror attacks case is likely to be completed before Diwali in October, Special Judge M L Tahilyani indicated on July 16. (ANI)