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INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - 16th SEP - TO - 15th OCT - 2009
AJMAL AMIR KASAB TRIAL: COURT DIRECTS BAR COUNCIL TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST DEFENCE ADVOCATES AZMI AND NAQVI
The designated court, conducting the trial in 26/11 terror attack case, issued a letter to Bar Council to take action against defence advocates Shahid Azmi and Aijaz Naqvi, representing two accused in the case for their non-appearance in the court during cross examination of a witness.
After examination of chief of Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad inspector Om Prakash Tripathi, who had arrested the accused Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, designated judge M L Tahiyani asked Faheem and Sabauddin about their lawyer's whereabouts and whether they wanted the witness to be cross-examined. Both replied that they did not know where their lawyers were and that they wanted the witness to be cross-examined.
Following this, an anguished judge Tahilyani wrote a letter to the Bar Council asking them to take action against Azmi and Naqvi, who were representing Faheem and Sabauddin respectively.
Meanwhile, inspector Trpathi said he had arrested Faheem in February 2008 from a residential building in Lucknow. He said police had also seized various articles, including a Pakistani passport in the name of Ahmed Hassan and bearing Faheem’s photograph and a map showing selected parts of Mumbai.
Inspector Tripathi said during interrogation Faheem had revealed the name of co-accused Sabauddin, which led to his arrest. He said the ATS team had brought Faheem and Sabauddin to Mumbai for investigation purpose and gathered evidence against them.
According to prosecution, Faheem and Sabauddin belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba and they had supplied map of the city to Pakistan-based terrorist agencies, who had masterminded the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai.
Meanwhile, a CD carrying footage of terrorist strike on the Trident Hotel during the 26/11 attack was screened in the court for more than an hour. The footage was of poor quality and showed two people firing indiscriminately on people with their guns, but their faces were not clear.
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