Nikam recounts Kasab’s alleged claim about Amitabh Bachchan

Public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said on a special episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati 18 that Ajmal Kasab had told him during the trial over the 2008 Mumbai attacks that he came to Mumbai to see actor Amitabh Bachchan. Bachchan responded during the televised conversation that, had he known, he would have shot Kasab. The exchange was part of a discussion about the attacks and the legal case against Kasab, the only attacker captured alive. Bachchan asked Nikam why several years passed between Kasab’s death sentence and his execution. Nikam then recounted his first encounter with Kasab in court and described claims the accused had made about his identity and why he was in Mumbai. Nikam’s account is the basis for the reported claim about Kasab’s stated reason for travelling to Mumbai. The episode does not independently establish that Kasab made the statement, and no trial transcript or other contemporaneous confirmation is provided in the available reports. The distinction is important: the exchange reported on television establishes what Nikam recalled, rather than independently verifying the alleged courtroom remark.