The Taj Mahal hotel a day after the terror attacks on November 26, 2008. (Fotocorp)

New Delhi, Aug. 29: The Supreme Court today upheld death by hanging for Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving 26/11 gunman, citing his “unrepentant” attitude and his insistence on calling himself a hero and a “watan parast” (patriotic) Pakistani.

Kasab, 25, lodged in Mumbai’s high-security Arthur Road jail, can now file a review petition in the top court. Alternatively, he could file a mercy plea with the governor or the President.

He cannot be hanged till these legal options are exhausted.

Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said if the Pakistani Lashkar operative — one of a group of 10 Lashkar men that attacked Mumbai on November 26, 2008 — does file a mercy petition, it would be disposed of in the minimum possible time.

The Supreme Court referred to the 26/11 attacks as a terrorist attack from across the border.

“It has a magnitude of unprecedented enormity on all scales. The conspiracy behind the attack was as deep and large as it was vicious. The preparation and training for the execution was as thorough as the execution was ruthless.

“In terms of loss of life and property and more importantly in its traumatising effect, this case stands alone, or it is at least the very rarest of rare to come before this court since the birth of the Republic. Therefore, it should also attract the rarest of rare punishment,” it said.

The judges dismissed the contention of the court-appointed amicus Raju Ramachandran, defending Kasab, that his crimes along with that of his dead partner Abu Ismail should be viewed in isolation from that of the other eight terrorists.

“The appellant and his companion, the dead Abu Ismail, were part of a close-knit team of 10 terrorists who arrived together on the soil of Mumbai in a highly organised way and attacked their various targets in furtherance of a common conspiracy…,” the court said.

The simultaneous attacks in five places were part of a “much larger and ominous conspiracy hatched in Pakistan, the aim of which was to destabilise the country and to wage war against the government of India.”

“All 10 terrorists… were acting in concert and in execution of the larger conspiracy. Seen thus, the appellant would appear equally culpable for the carnage and other offences committed by the other terrorists of the team at different places,” the court said.

Ramachandran had tried to build a case that Kasab and Ismail, caught on camera killing people, were not part of the terror team and were acting on their own. This could have attracted a lesser punishment.

The court justified its decision not to commute the death penalty to a life sentence by referring to Kasab’s absolute lack of remorse.

“In initial weeks after his arrest he continued to regard himself as a ‘watan parast’, a patriotic Pakistani who considered himself to be at war with this country,” it said.

“He made the confessional statement before the magistrate on February 17, 2009, not out of any sense of guilt or sorrow or grief but to present himself as a hero… to set an example for others to become fidayeen like him,” the bench said.

“ The judge trying him had occasion to watch him closely and has repeatedly observed about the lack of any remorse on the appellant’s part. The high court, too, has noticed that the appellant never showed any remorse,” Justices Aftab Alam and C.K. Prasad said.

“This, to our mind, forecloses the possibility of any reform or rehabilitation of the appellant. The alternative option of life sentence is thus unquestionably excluded and death remains the only punishment that can be given,” the over 400-page judgment said.

The bench rejected Ramachandran’s submission that he was a mere tool in the hands of the real conspirators in Pakistan and that death penalty should be reserved for them.

“He joined the LET around December 2007 and continued as its member till the end, despite a number of opportunities to leave it.… Where is the question of his being brain-washed…. It is true that he is not educated but he is a very good and quick learner, has a tough mind and strong determination. He is also quite clever and shrewd...” it said.