Acquittal of Fahim,Sabahuddin: State govt to move SC

Dismissing the government’s appeal against the acquittals,Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice R V More held that the witness statements produced by the prosecution to show the involvement of Ansari and Ahmed in the conspiracy behind 26/11 were not sufficiently corroborated.

The HC noted,in agreement with the trial court,that Nuruddin Shaikh,the star witness of the prosecution in its case against Ansari and Ahmed,was not completely reliable. The prosecution could not sufficiently prove how Shaikh,allegedly a childhood friend of Ahmed,went to Nepal as a tourist along with one Bharat Thakur and is said to have met Ahmed. Shaikh,a resident of Goregaon,works as a driver with no regular source of income.

According to the prosecution,Ansari who scouted the 26/11 terror targets,prepared maps and handed them over to Ahmed in Nepal in January 2008,who in turn passed them on to members of the LeT.

The deposition of two witnesses,Ashok Kumar Raghav,Superintendent of Police (Intelligence),Uttar Pradesh,where the two accused were arrested in connection with an attack on a CRPF camp in 2007,and Manpreet Vora,the then Deputy High Commissioner in the Indian High Commission,Islamabad,who stated based on a dossier received from Pakistan that Ansari had obtained a passport on the fake identity of Hasan Hammad,were believed by the court. But the court said they were not useful in proving the case against the two. “The handing over of maps in Nepal itself is not proved. Therefore,these circumstances even if held to be proved,will not help the prosecution,” the court observed.

“The trial court had discarded the evidence in connection with the statements of these witnesses. However,the HC believed them but said they were not corroborated,” Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said.

The court also held that the map found in slain terrorist Abu Ismail’s trousers would have had blood stains owing to his injuries and rejected the prosecution’s claim that the maps made by Ansari were carried by Ismail in his pocket.

Nikam said he would advise the state government to go in appeal against the acquittals. Later in the day,Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said he was unhappy with the acquittals and the state would challenge it in the Supreme Court.