An eight-member Judicial Commission from Pakistan, on a visit in Mumbai to examine four Indian witnesses in the 26/11 terror attack trial going on it that country, on Tuesday urged a Mumbai Court to allow inspection of the dinghy and other articles used by the perpetrators.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate P.Y. Ladekar, who presided over the proceedings, asked Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, representing the Centre, to produce the dinghy, its Yamaha engine, cell phones and Global Positioning System (GPS) before the panel on Wednesday.
When the court asked the prosecutor whether the government had any objection to producing these articles, Mr. Nikam replied in the negative and said those were lying at the Arthur Road Central prison and would be produced on Wednesday.
At one stage, the court expressed its annoyance at why the Commission had not informed in advance about its plans to examine the articles used by the 10 LeT terrorists.
On their way to Mumbai, the terrorists had hijacked an Indian fishing boat ‘Kuber’, which they abandoned on reaching near the city shores and used the dinghy to arrive at the coast on November 26, 2008, before unleashing violence that left 166 people dead.
Two doctors -- Shailesh Mohite and Ganesh Nithurkar -- who had conducted autopsies of nine terrorists, gave a brief account of the post-mortems performed by them.
“Mohite had informed the court that he had conducted post mortem on terrorist Abu Ismail, a companion of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, on November 26, 2008,” Mr. Nikam said.
The Pakistani Commission, the purpose of whose visit is to cross-examine the witnesses, chose not to do so.
Asked why they did not cross-examine the witnesses, who deposed before the panel on Tuesday, Mr. Nikam said, “perhaps they did not wish to dispute the injuries caused to terrorists and also did not want to disagree about the number of casualties.”
Two remaining witnesses -- Magistrate R.V. Sawant-Waghule, who had recorded the confession of Kasab, and the Investigating Officer Ramesh Mahale would depose on Wednesday.
