Mumbai: Terming his trial by a special
court as "unfair", Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab Thursday demanded a retrial of 26/11 case claiming that important witnesses were not examined, material evidence not tabled and
norms not followed in appointing lawyers to defend him.
Opening arguments to defend Kasab in the Bombay High
Court, his lawyer Amin Solkar argued that the 23-year-old
should be tried afresh as important witnesses were not
examined and cited the Best Bakery case in which Supreme Court
had ordered retrial on the same ground.
Kasab, who along with nine other terrorists had struck
Mumbai two years ago leaving 166 people dead, was sentenced to
death by a special court in May.
Solkar said Anita Udaiya, an eye witness who had
claimed to have seen terrorists getting down from a speed boat
at fishermen's colony in South Mumbai on the day of terror
attacks, was not examined in the trial.
She had later identified bodies of terrorists who were
killed by armed forces in a pitched battle. In JJ hospital
morgue, Anita had identified the bodies of slain gunmen who
had arrived by the boat, Solkar said.
Another witness, Parasnath Giri, an RPF constable, who
had sustained a bullet injury on chest when terrorists fired
at him at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, was also not examined.
Solkar said that record of talks between slain police
officer Hemant Karkare and staff of police control room on
wireless was not produced in the trial. This would have thrown
light on what had transpired in and around Cama Hospital when Kasab and his accomplice Abu Ismael allegedly struck.
Solkar also said that appointment of lawyers Abbas
Kazmi and K P Pawar to defend Kasab in the trial court was
also not in conformity with the law.
Kasab, who is lodged in high-security Arthur Road
Jail, did not appear today through the video conference link
specially put up in the court for the trial.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, November 25, 2010, 23:06