The anti-terrorist squad (ATS) of Mumbai Police, which claims to have cracked the July 11 train blasts case, has asked the MCOCA court for six more weeks to file a chargesheet, indicating that it is still struggling to gather evidence.

The chargesheet was to be filed by October-end. But the request to the court means that the claim may have been made in haste. All along, the ATS has been waving confession statements and results of narco-analysis tests. But material, corroborative and circumstantial evidence that will clinch the case seem wanting.

Consider the following:

• The ATS claimed that the blasts were carried out by 11 Pakistani nationals with logistic support from local Lashkar-e-Toiba operatives. It said one of the Pakistanis, Saleem, died in the blasts and another, Abu Osama, was eliminated in an encounter on August 22. But the list of absconders mentions only three Pakistanis. The list gives names, but not their roles in the blasts, their area of origin or operation.

• The list of absconders does not mention one Ehsanullah who the ATS described at a press conference as the man who brought 15-20 kg RDX to the city for the blasts. It hasn’t established how he got the RDX, whether it was supplied to him en route or when he set out from Pakistan.

• The ATS claimed that 11 Pakistanis arrived in batches through three different routes a month before the blasts. It also claims to have arrested two men — Kamal Ansari and Mohammad Majid Mohammad Sheikh — who had escorted seven of the Pakistanis to Mumbai. But it is still to establish how Ehsanullah and three others arrived in Mumbai via Gujarat, who brought them here, and through which route. D G Vanjara, DIG in-charge of Gujarat ATS, said: “We are co-ordinating with the Maharashtra ATS but there’s no clear picture in this regard.”

... contd.