Lawyers who defended Kasab in HC yet to get their fees

Mumbai: Two lawyers who defended Ajmal Kasab in the 2008 Mumbai attack case on the directions of the Bombay HC are yet to get their legal fees from the Maharashtra government. While the state government says they have not submitted any bills, the lawyers say that state prosecutors are not supposed to.

The two lawyers -- Amin Solkar and Farhana Shah -- were tasked with defending Kasab, hanged to death on November 21, 2012 for killing over 166 people in Mumbai, by the Maharashtra State Legal Services Department after they were nominated by then acting Chief Justice of Bombay High Court J N Patel. A notification about their appointment was issued on June 8, 2010 after Kasab had expressed his desire to contest the verdict of the trial court sentencing him to death in the Bombay HC. According to the notification, Solkar was to receive remuneration equivalent to what is sanctioned for a public prosecutor, who conducts a death confirmation appeal, and Shah was to receive fees on par with an assistant prosecutor.

Keeping in tradition with the fairness of the trial, the law allows for appointment of a lawyer from the legal services department if accused is unable to do so. Solkar and Shah had argued for Kasab in the Bombay High Court against his death sentence almost on a day-to-day basis for nearly nine months before it confirmed the death sentence on the lone gunman, who sprayed bullets barbarically on November 26, 2008.