Mumbai Police have turned down Pakistan’s request for samples of pink foam found in the bombs planted by the 26/11 attackers.

The request was made in the dossier Pakistan handed over to India on July 11 in which it had given an update on the action it had taken against the alleged perpetrators of the attack and had also sought additional information. It had sought a sample of the pink foam seized by the police for “chemical comparison” with some material seized by Pakistan.

The foam was used to pack the three bombs the Lashkar men planted in the city but which didn’t explode. The same material was also found on MV Kuber, the boat used by the terrorists to reach Mumbai. Police sources said the foam was part of material evidence that had become the property of the court trying the case and could not be given to Pakistan. This, they said, had been conveyed to the Union Home Ministry, through which the request had been routed.

Instead, the Mumbai Police Crime Branch has suggested, Pakistani investigators should invoke a letter rogatory from the concerned court in their country and seek the evidence directly from the Mumbai court. A letter rogatory is a formal request from a court to a foreign court for judicial assistance.

Sources pointed out that under Section 189 of Pakistan’s Criminal Procedure Code pertaining to “power to direct copies of depositions and exhibits to be received in evidence”, a provincial government can seek evidence collected in an offence committed by a Pakistani national outside the limits of Pakistani territory for investigating the offence as if it was committed on Pakistani soil.

... contd.