The last words Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Ajmal Amir Kasab said to senior police inspector Ramesh Mahale were, “Aap jeet gaye, main har gaya [you won, I lost].” The admission came in November 2012, a day before Kasab would be hanged to death for being guilty of 80 offences, including waging war against India.
It marked the end of an association that began at Mumbai’s Nair Hospital, where Mahale had first questioned Kasab after the latter was captured by the Mumbai Police on November 26, 2008. Mahale, now retired, was the chief investigator of the 26/11 attacks and headed Mumbai’s crime branch Unit 1 in 2008.
Kasab was in the crime branch’s custody for about 81 days before being shifted to a specially-made, bulletproof, high-security cell in Arthur Road Jail. “Till the time he was handed a death warrant by the court, Kasab believed he would get a leeway from Indian laws,” said Mahale, who retired in 2013.