Soon after these statements were made, special public prosecutor Raja Thackeray told the court the confessions of the six produced in court had not been taken. “I have received instructions (from the officer). Confession has not been taken,” he said.

But this contradicted what ATS joint commissioner K P Raghuvanshi said later at a press conference. He said the confessions of the four accused, Mohammed Ali, Sajid Ansari, Naveed Hussain and Mohammed Majeed Shafi had been recorded.

Refuting defence allegations, Raghuvanshi also insisted that MCOCA procedures were followed while recording confession statements. “This investigation has been carried out as per the guidelines prescribed under MCOCA. I can assure you that proper procedure was followed,” he said. He also denied allegations of torture of the accused. “None of the men we’ve kept in our custody has complained to the court of police torture,” he said.