26/11 terror attacks: Mumbai Court to pronounce verdict today
By ANIMonday, May 3, 2010
MUMBAI - A special court is all set to decide the fate of the lone surviving Pakistani terrorist involved in the 26/11 Mumbai attack, Ajmal Ameer Kasab and two Indian conspirators-Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed on Monday.
Monday’s judgment will be pronounced seventeen months after the incident.
The trial, perhaps the fastest in a terror case in India, had commenced on May 8, 2009 in a special court set up at the Arthur Road Jail.
Judge M L Tahaliyani recorded 3,192 pages of evidence after examining 658 witnesses on 271 working days.
Thirty witnesses in the court identified Kasab as the man who had opened fire at them.
The prosecution led by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, had submitted 1,015 articles seized during investigations.
Nikam had also filed 1,691 documents to support the case.
He had also argued that Pakistan’s security apparatus was used by the terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
For the first time in the Indian history, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials deposed before the court and gave technical evidence.
The FBI informed the court about the technical data it gathered - -that how Kasab and others came from Pakistan using Global Positioning System (GPS) and that they made calls from their mobile phones through Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) to stay in touch with their handlers across the border.
Prosecution also tabled CCTV footage of the terrorists moving about with guns and firing at people.
The images were captured on CCTV cameras fitted at CST railway station, Times of India building, and Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels.
Photographs of Kasab shot by photojournalists Sebastian D’souza and Sriram Vernekar were also placed before the court.
Kasab is a native of Faridkot, in Pakistan’s Punjab Province.
He along with nine other terrorists, who were killed during the gun battle with security forces in Mumbai have been charged with killing 166 people, including 25 foreigners. (ANI)
