Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone Pakistani gunman captured during the 26/11 terror attack, today told the Mumbai trial court it was free to sentence him to death by hanging if there were doubts that he had pleaded guilty with the intention to escape the death penalty for a lesser sentence.

Standing in the dock in a white kurta-pyjama, Kasab told the court: ?Agar kisiko aitraaz hai… agar kisi ke dil mein shak hai ki main phaansi se bachne ke liye, riyayat ke liye, yeh kar raha hoon toh beshak phaansi ki saza dijiye (If anyone feels that I am confessing to escape the death penalty or am seeking leniency, then sentence me to death by hanging).?

Kasab, who had pleaded guilty to the crime on Monday, told the court: ?Mein ne is duniya mein jo kiya hai uski sazaa duniyawalon se hi milna chahiye, khuda ki sazaa nahin chahiye (I should be punished by this world for what I did here, not by the Almighty)?.

His lawyer Abbas Kazmi said: ?He has lost his mental balance and is expecting that he will go to heaven if sentenced by the court.?

Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said Kasab was ?trying to gain sympathy from the public but one should not forget the act he committed… a terrorist like Kasab who killed more than 50 people?.

Kasab?s plea to hang him came when Nikam was asking the court to verify whether the guilty plea was made voluntarily or under duress, and that his lawyer Kazmi should verify it. Kazmi stood up and said ?my client has himself made it clear and now it is the discretion of the court to accept or reject it.?

Judge M L Tahaliyani then asked Kasab ?Kya aap aur kuch case related kehna chahte hain? Tum par koi dabaav toh nahin hai? (Do you want to say anything more regarding the case? Are you under any pressure?).?

Kasab replied in the negative but Kazmi said ?Sir, it has to be considered under what circumstances Kasab has made the plea… for many days he has been mentally tortured by policemen… Policewalon ne usko bola dekho tumhare bachne ke koi chance nahin hai, court hamara hai, vakil bhi hai and tumhe diya hua vakil bhi hamara hai (Policemen told him you cannot escape, that the court is ours and so are the prosecutor and your lawyer).?

The court asked Kasab whether this was true to which he replied ?Nahin aisa koi masla nahin hai, yeh torture mere saath inquiry ke time hua tha (No, there is no such issue. I had to suffer this torture only during the inquiry).?

Nikam told the court that the guilty plea made by Kasab was inconsistent, that he had suppressed many important facts. He described Kasab as shrewd and clever, saying he had tried to save himself by shifting blame on his dead partner Abu Ismail Khan.

Nikam pointed to gaps between the plea and the confessional statement made before a magistrate in February. He asked the court to accept the plea and let the prosecution present further evidence or take the plea on record and continue with the trial as earlier and use the plea at an appropriate time.

But Kazmi opposed it, saying that the court can only accept the plea or reject it and not take it on record. Judge Tahaliyani, after hearing both sides, reserved his order for Thursday.