A Mumbai Police naik’s deposition on Monday, on the sequence of events outside Cama & Albless Hospital leading to the killing of top police officers on 26/11, revealed discrepancies between the statement by accused Ajmal Amir Kasab and the prosecution’s version of events.

Also, as witness Suresh Shantaram Kadam described watching Kasab and his accomplice (now dead) enter the Rang Bhavan lane after emerging from Cama Hospital, special judge M L Tahaliyani said he was “really distressed” that an earlier police witness, senior inspector Yashwant Thoravade, had not mentioned having seen the two terrorists shoot a police officer on Mahapalika Marg before proceeding into Rang Bhavan lane, where Joint Commissioner of Police (ATS) Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar were later killed.

Kadam, 40, said he was standing along with two other policemen, each armed with a revolver or pistol, when a police Qualis emerged from the Rang Bhavan lane, with Kasab’s accomplice Abu Ismail at the wheel, firing from his automatic weapon even as he drove. While Kasab in his statement has said there was firing in their direction as they drove the Qualis out of the lane after the killing of the police officers, Kadam said during cross-examination that his team did not fire at the vehicle. They had, however, fired in the direction of the terrorists before the duo walked into the lane after emerging from a 45-minute encounter inside Cama Hospital, he said.

Having met Additional Commissioner of Police Sadanand Date and his team at the Metro Cinema junction, Kadam and others were instructed to return to Azad Maidan police station for bulletproof jackets. On return, they stationed themselves on Mahapalika Marg, some distance from the gate of Cama Hospital. Among those in the police Bolero was Thoravade, the witness said.

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