26/11 accused alleges ignorance, says police made him a scapegoat

Faheem Ansari, charged with conspiracy in the 26/11 case, told the trial court that he had no links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba and was being made a scapegoat by the police.

His lawyer R.B. Mokashi argued that police had not produced any material to show that Faheem was a terrorist and had connections with LeT which had allegedly carried out the attack.

The prosecution’s case is that Faheem had drawn maps of terror targets and gave them to co-accused Sabauddin Ahmed, who then forwarded them to the LeT. One map was found from the trousers of slain terrorist Abu Ismael who had paired with the lone surviving Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab.

The map was not folded or crumpled and the police theory that it was found in the pocket of trousers of Abu Ismael was “false and fabricated”, Mokashi told judge M.L. Tahaliyani in final arguments.

Faheem’s lawyer further argued that there was no suggestion in the evidence that Ismael had taken out the map and referred to it while driving the stolen Skoda car along with Kasab on way to Malabar Hill on November 26, 2008.

Mokashi said the prosecution had only relied on Kasab’s confession in which he said that while passing by Girgaum Chowpatty, he saw the sea on the left and remembered the map shown to him by conspirators in Pakistan.

Mokashi argued that prosecution had produced only one witness to prove that Faheem had given maps to Sabauddin in Nepal. The evidence of this witness was doubtful as there is no corroboration of his version, he said.

The prosecution had not produced any evidence to show that the witness Nuruddin Shaikh, close friend of Faheem, had travelled to Nepal and stayed there. Mere statement of the witness that maps were given in his presence could not be considered as the gospel truth, Mokashi argued.

When the witness was confronted with the maps in the court he said they seemed to look like the ones he had seen in Faheem’s hands in Nepal. This showed that the witness was not confident that they were the same maps, Mokashi argued.

On prosecution’s allegation that Faheem had obtained admission in a computer institute in the fake name of Salil Pawaskar before the 26/11 attacks, the lawyer said this was not a crime and did not prove that Faheem got any benefit by doing this or that some other person stood at a disadvantage.

The lawyer further argued that the prosecution had failed to prove the case of conspiracy vis-a-vis Faheem and Sabauddin. There was no material to prove that Sabauddin gave maps to the LeT. Only Kasab had said in his confession that the maps had been given by the duo to the conspirators, he said.