So, Ajmal Kasab – the “face” of 26/11 terror attack – neither asked, nor was fed mutton biryani while in custody. It appears that the story that the media gleefully lapped up and raged on about was just a little lie that public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam decided to spread to “divert people’s attention”.

Nikam has been condemned by many in the legal fraternity for misleading the public and trying to instigate a media trial. But the blame for propagating a falsehood cannot rest exclusively with Nikam. After all, it is the media that allowed this little fib to become an uncontested fact — so much so that biryani came to be associated with some kind of a terrorist cuisine in popular discourse.

A cursory Google search “Kasab + Biryani” reveals that the Indian media between 2010 and 2012 – the time from when Kasab was found guilty of 80 offences till he was hanged– displayed a keen interest in what the terror accused was eating while in custody at Arthur Road Central Jail in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Most stories were not solely based on Nikam’s quotes but were centered on multiple sources, including jail authorities and unnamed “sources”. This begs the question of whether the public prosecutor and prison authorities were in on the lie. Or, indeed, if individual reporters were making up sources.

Reports about Kasab throwing utensils and demanding biryani appeared first in August, 2009, on the newswire, Press Trust of India (PTI). The PTI report was carried by publications like The Times of India and India Today. The report is largely based on the jail authorities’ complain to the special court, with Nikam condemning Kasab.

Kasab is very clever and should not be allowed to throw tantrums, Nikam said. 

A DNA report added more meat to the PTI story wondering whether Kasab was a “terrorist of taste or tantrum”. The story again quotes prison “sources” saying Kasab demanded mutton twice a week – “non-vegetarian food and biryani”.

Did the jail “sources” and Nikam collude to spread misinformation? Or was Nikam the jail source?

Within a week, another PTI report came out stating that after biryani, Kasab now demanded Basmati rice and spicy food.

Kasab wants spicy food and ‘basmati’ rice for himself and if he does not get dish of his choice he gets furious and abuses the staff of the Arthur road central prison, where he is lodged.

The report has the jail Superintendent stating that Kasab’s “mood swings still continue”. The story was carried by various publications and, curiously, by CNN IBN again in 2010.

Following what we now know as concocted reports, came other news stories implying that prison authorities had given in to Kasab’s demands. Albeit with a little twist – jail authorities were serving Kasab biriyani. Chicken, not mutton.

By 2012, though, the year Kasab was hanged, came reports of Kasab turning vegetarian. The Times of India carried a report that stated Kasab was now eating like any other petty criminal.

“Kasab gets vegetarian food now since non-veg is not allowed in the jail. Earlier, when food was being cooked for around a dozen police personnel and Kasab, the cooks would prepare non-veg at times. But, today, Kasab gets what other petty criminals eat,” said a jail official. 

Too late. Because by then, police had already understood that the “way to terrorist’s heart is through his stomach”. Just two months after reports of Kasab “turning” vegetarian came a report in The Telegraph that stated the Delhi Police was serving biryani from a Khan Market restaurant to 26/11 suspect, Abu Jundul.

“He wouldn’t eat at first, saying he wasn’t hungry. When we insisted, he said he didn’t like dal-roti,” said another officer.

So, constables were told to get friendly and find out his preferences. “He told one of the constables that he loved mutton biryani and Mughlai…. Now he is enjoying his food,” the officer said.

Kasab eating dal found little traction, considering that months later, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi urged the Centre to not delay hanging Kasab stating quite simply: “…Kasab ko biryani bahut khilayi.”

Biryani and non-vegetarian food was thus placed at the heart of India’s counter-terror apparatus.

It was only a day after Kasab was executed on November 21, 2012, that a report in Hindustan Times appeared headlined: “Biryani Myth And The Quiet Inmate”.

The report had a top official state that non-vegetarian meals aren’t served as a rule in any prison in Maharashtra. “We sometimes provide eggs on medical advice.”

A quiet man, Kasab ate frugally; the aluminium plate in which he was served food was often full of leftovers. “At times, he was allowed to walk in the roofed corridor,” said a jail warden.

It’s unlikely that the lie about Kasab demanding biryani had any bearing on his case. The senseless and coldblooded act of terror unleashed by Kasab and his accomplices, caught on CCTV cameras, was enough grounds for the judiciary to pronounce the harshest of punishments. Could certain sections of the media have done better than adding meat to the story?