26/11 case: Govt may spend Rs 30 lakh to defend Kasab

Mumbai: Maharashtra government may spend upto Rs 30 lakh as legal aid expenses to defend the prime accused in 26/11 terror strike, Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab.
Sources say that the state has recommended Rs 2,500 as daily fee for Kasab's defence counsel Abbas Kazmi.
However, an advocate belonging to the state's legal aid panel who defends an accused gets only Rs 900 per day which far less than what has been proposed as Kazmi's fee.
Kasab's previous defence counsel Anjali Waghmare was getting Rs 900 as daily fee. Kazmi is,however, not a member of the state's legal aid panel.
Kazmi was appinted as Kasab's lawyer after Waghmare was removed from the case for not informing the court earlier that she was a prosecutor in the Cama Hospital shootout case, which is clash of interest.
Kasab is the ony terrorist captured alive in the 26/11 attack and his trial is being conducted at a special court inside the high-security Arthur Road Jail.