Ajmal Kasab can read books, but not newspapers: Court

Mumbai: A special court has rejected the plea of Mohammad Ajmal Amir, the lone gunman arrested for the Mumbai terror attacks, to have access to newspapers in jail but allowed his lawyer to lend him some books for reading.
Ajmal's lawyer Anjali Waghmare withdraws from the case Navy chief warns India that ship containers may be used by terrorists "I informed the court that Ajmal wanted to read newspapers in jail but the plea was not considered. Instead the court suggested that I could lend some story books to him," Ajmal's lawyer Abbas Kazmi said.
As Ajmal is well versed in Urdu, Kazmi said, he was planning to give him books in that language."The books will be given to the jailor who in turn will pass them to Ajmal," the 54-year-old Mumbai lawyer said.To a question, Kazmi said the 26/11 attacks accused likes to read stories which have "entertainment value."On the daily schedule of Ajmal, Kazmi said he was in solitary confinement and was on his own.
The lawyer said he had been given a short time to prepare for arguments on charges proposed by prosecution against Ajmal.On May 2, he has to give his submissions after going through the 11,000-page chargesheet.
"I am not ready yet," Kazmi said.Ajmal's lawyer further said that he was devoting most of his time to this case after court hours and that he is not taking up any other matter.To a question about visit of Ajmal's mother, Kazmi said he had no knowledge of any such development and also Ajmal had not talked to him about his family or personal matters.
Kazmi said Ajmal was cooperating with him and his reponse to the legal queries has been good. But he had no idea how long will the trial continue. "Much would depend on the prosecution and the witnesses they would examine".
Asked whether the government had decided the amount of fees to be paid to him, Kazmi said the court had appointed him and also recommended fees."Let the government decide and then I shall decide about acceptance or non-acceptance of fees. It would be premature to say anything at this stage".
Kazmi said he was given 'Z' security and added that this was the first time he had been provided with security.Earlier, too he had defended accused allegedly involved in terror cases but defence advocates had never been given security.
To a question how he felt defending Ajmal and whether this had made any difference to him, the lawyer said "this case is very sensitive and there is a lot of media exposure. The entire world was watching this case. There is a lot of work pressure."