Mumbai: Specimen signatures of 26/11
accused Faheem Ansari matched with the writings on maps of
Mumbai terror sites seized from him by Lucknow Police at the
time of his arrest in a bomb blast case in Uttar Pradesh last
year, a handwriting expert informed the trial court on Friday.
This disclosure is considered significant because the
prosecution has alleged that Faheem had drawn maps of targets
and passed them on to Lashker-e-Taiba who plotted the attacks.
Deposing before Judge M L Tahaliyani, Dr Kanti Kumar
said he had matched 32 specimen signatures with the maps and
found that they matched.
"This indicated that Faheem had drawn the maps," he
told Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.
The expert said he had used a special equipment fitted
with a microscope to verify the signatures.
Another witness, police constable Chandrakant Raut
said Faheem was in his custody on January 3 when a Uttar
Pradesh Police officer had approached him for permission to
take specimen signatures of the accused.
Raut said he allowed the police officer to take
Faheem's specimen signatures after obtaining permission from a
magistrate in Mumbai.
Faheem is facing the trial with Sabauddin Ahmed and
Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab. They are charged with the murder
of 183 people.
PTI
First Published: Friday, November 20, 2009, 22:22