I did my best to defend Ajmal Kasab: Pawar

As he awaits the outcome of the "biggest and most challenging" case in his career, Ajmal Kasab's lawyer is satisfied with the defence he made of his client's innocence in the 26/11 trial.

"I am hopeful that Kasab's defence of his innocence in the case would be considered by the court while delivering the verdict on May 3," K P Pawar told PTI.

After having confessed to his crime before a magistrate and pleading guilty in the court during the trial, Kasab made a U-turn and claimed that he hailed from Faridkot in Pakistan and came to India as a tourist where he was arrested while taking a stroll at Juhu Chowpatty few days prior to the terror attack.

About Kasab's flip-flops on his complicity in the crime, Pawar said, "Most of the time he claimed to have made statements under police pressure and hence such statements do not have much legal value."

Kasab, the defence lawyer said, is "very sharp and clever" and understood the proceedings clearly although most of it was in Marathi as witnesses deposed in that language.

"He picked up Marathi and gave me instructions on how to proceed in the case," Pawar said.

Pawar, who was appointed to defend Kasab at the fag end of the trial after Judge M L Tahaliyani removed his lawyer Abbas Kazmi for hindering the proceedings, said he spent 12 to 15 hours on an average every day to prepare for his defence.

"After I was appointed as defence lawyer in the 26/11 case, I did not accept any other brief and concentrated fully on this one," the lawyer said.

"This is the biggest and most challenging case in my 13-year-old career," Pawar said.

"In the 26/11 trial, more than 600 witnesses have given testimony and we have tried our best to demolish the evidence of some crucial witnesses… let us wait for the verdict now," Kasab's lawyer said.