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Witness identifies Kasab as gunman who killed brother

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  • Kasab
    The witness said 'I have seen with my own eyes this man (Kasab) firing at my brother. How can I forget'?
    Emotional scenes were witnessed in the court conducting the trial of 26/11 terror attack accused Mohammed Ajmal Kasab on Wednesday, when a witness broke down while identifying him as the gunman who killed his brother.

    Bharat Vaghela, who lives in a hut near the Cama Hospital which was one of the sites of the terror attacks, broke down as he said he had seen Kasab killing his brother.

    "My brother has small children. Who will look after them?" an emotional Vaghela said.

    When asked by special judge M L Tahaliyani to regain composure, Vaghela said, "I have seen with my own eyes this man firing at my brother. How can I forget?"

    However, Kasab did not react when identified by Vaghela.

    Two other eyewitnesses, a nurse at Cama Hospital and a photojournalist, also identified Kasab today as one of the gunman involved in the terror strikes.

    Vaghela said on the night of November 26 he was standing outside his house talking to some friends when they saw two persons approach from a distance who began shooting at them.

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    "I then rushed towards my hut, closed the door and told my mother what had happened," he said.

    Vaghela told Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam that by looking through a gap in the frame of the door he could see Kasab standing outside his hut and firing at the adjacent house where his brother Thakur lived.

    "I heard cries from the hut and after some time both gunmen went towards Cama Hospital. I came out and saw my brother in a pool of blood and his five-year-old child was crying," Vaghela said.

    He said he rushed his brother to the J J Hospital where he was declared brought dead. A friend Bhagan Shinde, with whom he was talking earlier, was also brought to the same hospital but was declared dead on arrival, Vaghela said.

    The witness also refuted defence counsel Abbas Kazmi's contention that he had not seen Kasab, saying that he had seen the Pakistani gunman from close and firing a gun.

    Another eyewitness, nurse Anjali Gulati working at the Cama Hospital, said she had seen two persons enter the hospital compound on November 26 night.

    The taller of the two opened fire which resulted in her assistant Heera Yadav sustaining bullet injuries in her arm, Gulati told Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, adding that she immediately reported it to the Chief Medical Officer.

    "I then rushed to my ward and closed the collapsible doors. There were 20 persons in the ward and I shifted them to the pantry because the ward had open windows on all sides and it was highly risky to keep them there," she said.

    "We could hear sound of firing and explosions for the next two hours," Gulati said.

    According to the prosecution, the two gunmen after leaving CST entered the nearby Cama Hospital where they were involved in a gun-fight with police personnel.

    Kasab was laughing when Gulati described one of the terrorists as being tall and the other short.

    Gulati said she had earlier identified Kasab in an identification parade conducted by the police. "When I touched him to identify him, he said 'Aapne sahi pehchana, main wohi Ajmal Kasab hoon.' (You have recognised me correctly. I am the same Ajmal Kasab)", Gulati said.

    However, when asked by defence counsel Kazmi whether this statement had been recorded at the time of the identification parade, Gulati said she did not know.

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