‘When told to stop, they turned on full beam, wipers’

Senior Police Inspector Nagappa Mali from the DB Marg police station said, “On that night, I was about to go home when I got to know that some terrorists were headed towards my jurisdiction. I immediately formed two teams, one of which was posted at Girgaum Chowpatty and the other at the Tribhovandas Zhaveri Lane. When the Skoda neared the barricades that we had erected at Girgaum, the two men sitting inside turned their head lights to full beam, squirted water on their wind-shields and turned on the wipers in an attempt to hide their faces.

However, as we had information about the colour and make of the car, we signalled them to stop and demanded that they emerge from the car with their hands raised. Kasab who was sitting in the passenger seat came out with his hands raised but then immediately started firing from his AK-47 which he had hidden between his knees.”

When the firing started, ASI Tukaram Umble got hit even as the rest of the team pounced on Kasab and subdued him. In the meantime, Inspector Vinod Sawant who had gone to the driver’s side saw that the driver, Ismail, was also firing with his weapon and Sawant and his associate immediately opened fire on him, said Mali. Ismail was declared dead later and Kasab, who initially pretended to be dead, was taken to the hospital.

“During the interrogation, we discovered that when the duo opened fire on Kamte, Karkare and Salaskar, they had no idea about how senior officers they had shot. All they saw was three men in a police Qualis and they opened fire on them. They took Kamte’s AK-47 while fleeing in the police vehicle,” said an official in the interrogating team.