The lawyer of Sabauddin Ahmed, an accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case, sought permission to examine Union Minister A R Antulay and Maharashtra Minister Narayan Rane as defence witness for their statements which might have a bearing on the trial.

After the terror attacks, Antulay had raised doubts about the killing of Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare who headed the Malegaon blast probe which revealed the alleged role of right- wing Hindu activists, while Rane had stated that some state politicians had provided help to terrorists in the November 26 strikes.

"Both should be examined as witness to throw light on their statements," Ejaz Naqvi, Sabauddin's lawyer, said.

Judge M L Tahilyani told him that he was free to call them as defence witness during the trial.

Earlier, submitting arguments to oppose the proposed charges against Sabauddin, the lawyer said that his client had not gone to Kathmandu to meet co-accused Faheem as claimed by the prosecution. Both Faheem and Sabauddin met for the first time in Uttar Pradesh when they were in ATS custody.

He said the maps recovered from slain terrorist Ismail Khan shows Raj Bhavan, Chowpatty and Malabar hill locations. It was not clear how accused Mohammed Kasab and Ismail reached CST as the place is not indicated in the map, Naqvi argued.

Naqvi further argued that earlier police claimed to have recovered map from slain terrorist Ismail Khan on November 27 last year, but this was disclosed for the first time before the court in the remand application on January 23. Why was the map not placed before the court earlier? he asked.

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