Chandrakant Tikhe, who operates the lifts at Cama Hospital, narrated in court on Friday how terrorists Ajmal Kasab and Abu Ismail Khan had used him as a shield from bullets on 26/11.

Tikhe told special sessions judge M L Tahaliyani that ACP (Central) Sadanand Date had saved his life when he was being held hostage on the terrace.

Tikhe deposed that he had heard gunshots and run to the terrace of the hospital, followed by the terrorists who took him hostage. He said the attackers asked him for a way out as they had seen police teams inside; he replied the only way out was the way they had entered.

Tikhe said the terrorists told him to walk ahead and made for the fifth floor, before policemen confronted them with gunfire. Date told Tikhe to cross over towards him, the witness said, adding this saved his life. He suffered shrapnel injuries when the terrorists lobbed a grenade in the direction of the police.

Also examined on Friday was Thomas Uledar, who said. “I was visiting my sister who had delivered a child in the hospital. On hearing the gunshots, I ran up to the fifth floor and tried to hide in an empty ward but Kasab pointed his AK-47 on my forehead and took me to a toilet.”

Uledar added that Khan was then searching the wards for hostages like a “tiger looks for its prey”. An elderly man came face to face with Khan, who stabbed him and shot him in the back, Uledar said. Kasab locked him in the toilet with three others; the police rescued them later.

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