An Indian state government has received a bill for nearly $2.4 million to cover the cost of guarding the only surviving gunman from the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks, a report said on Tuesday. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police has sent a bill for 109 million rupees to the government of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, for security at the city's Arthur Road jail where Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab is being held.
Some 200 ITBP commandos have been guarding Kasab at the high security jail since early 2009. The 23-year-old Pakistani national was tried and convicted last May at a special court inside the prison complex. The commando unit's director-general, R.K. Bhatia, said the bill covers costs between March 28, 2009 and September 30 last year, the domestic Press Trust of India news agency reported. The costs of deploying paramilitaries in India is normally covered by the state government but Medha Gadgil, a senior official at the Maharashtra home ministry, said the issue was a national one.