The Mumbai Police want to use Pakistan’s dossier on its internal probe into the 26/11 attack, submitted to India, as evidence in their case against alleged Lashkar-e-Toiba operative Fahim Ansari.

The dossier has become vital in establishing the prosecution’s case that Ansari had travelled to Pakistan using a bogus Pakistani passport, Crime Branch sources told Newsline.

To establish the dossier as authentic evidence, the police have two options: approach a representative of the Pakistan Embassy in New Delhi to depose as witness, or urge a representative of the Ministry of External Affairs depose on the source of the document.

Sources said the former option was impractical as Pakistani officials would be unwilling to depose in an Indian court, and even if they did, it could serve as a precedent for a request from Pakistan to return the gesture in future.

On September 25, the special court trying the case had refused to take on record a certified copy of an alleged Pakistani passport recovered from Ansari. This was after Ashok Kumar Raghav, an officer with the UP Special Task Force, had produced copies of the passport and other documents, and was cross-examined by Ansari’s lawyer Shahid Ansari.

The court said there was no proof that the passport was issued by the Pakistan government. “It’s mere presumption that the passport has been issued by the Pakistani authorities,” Special Judge ML Taheliyani had said.

The Crime Branch’s eagerness to place the dossier before the court stems from the fact that the dossier says that Mumbai resident Ansari travelled to Pakistan in late 2007 using bogus documents, as alleged by the Mumbai Police.

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