Seventeen months after 10 Lashkar-e-Toiba gunmen from Pakistan reached Mumbai by boat and launched one of the most horrific terror attacks witnessed by the country, a special sessions court on Monday found the lone surviving attacker, Ajmal Amir Kasab, guilty of murder, waging war against the country and criminal conspiracy that killed 165 people and wounded more than 200.
But in a jolt to the prosecution and Mumbai Police, Special Judge ML Tahaliyani acquitted the two Indians?Mumbai?s Fahim Ansari and Bihar?s Sabahuddin Ahmed?who were accused of laying the ground for the attacks by surveying the targets and supplying information to Lashkar bosses in Pakistan.
The two men were charged on the same 86 counts as Kasab. But the court said the evidence against them was not concrete or reliable. Of the 35 people named as fugitives in the chargesheet and who are believed to be in Pakistan, the court found only 20 guilty. They include Lashkar founder Hafiz Saeed, Lashkar operational commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Abu Hamza, among others.
While the state is expected to go in appeal against the acquittals, Tahaliyani will hear arguments over the sentencing of Kasab on Tuesday and could announce the punishment on the same day. His crimes carry a maximum sentence of the death penalty.
Kasab was convicted of all the major charges framed against him. He was held guilty of killing seven people including constable Tukaram Omble, who played a crucial role in nabbing him alive. But sitting in the dock next to Ansari and Ahmed, Kasab appeared indifferent through the proceedings which lasted for over two hours. He did not raise his head to look around and even when the conviction was conveyed to him in Hindi by the judge, he just closed his eyes and looked away.
?Though he might not have been present at the other targets attacked by his associates, he has abetted the criminal conspiracy hatched in Pakistan to kill innocent Indians,? the court said. ?Similarly, he is also proven responsible for the killing of three senior police officers, former ATS chief Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar.?
The 22-year-old gunman was also held guilty of waging war against India under Section 121 of the IPC, which attracts a maximum punishment of death sentence. ?A war-like situation was created? Kasab, along with nine others, fired indiscriminately, for which the government had to call for National Security Guard and Marine Commandos. It was not a simple crime like murder or attempt to murder but a ?war against the nation?,? Tahaliyani observed.
The court said that the charge of waging war had been proved by the telephonic conversations the 10 gunmen had with their handlers in Pakistan, the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology used to mask the identities of their phones and the GPS systems used to navigate their way from Karachi to Mumbai by sea. That the perpetrators of the attack had bought a Yamaha outboard boat engine from Japan and mobile phones that were used later by the attackers showed the ?attack conspiracy was pre-planned and well-detailed, indicating it was war waged against India?, the court said.
Holding Kasab guilty of criminal conspiracy, Tahaliyani observed, ?There can never be direct witnesses to a criminal conspiracy. It is always hatched in secrecy. Conspiracy continued until they mounted the attack on Mumbai.?
The court also rejected Kasab?s claim that he was in Mumbai before the attack to watch Bollywood movies and was framed in the case. ?As per his confessional statement which he has retracted later in court, the law of prudence holds ground and the court can rely on the statement if it is corroborated by other evidence. The prosecution has through three independent witnesses, railway announcer Madhukar Zende, photographers Sebastian d?Souza and Shriram Vernekar, established that Kasab was at CST, with his deceased partner,? the judge said.But Tahaliyani said the prosecution had failed to prove the guilt of Ansari and Ahmed. ?The prosecution has failed to produce any kind of quality and quantity evidence against them. The only eyewitness which the prosecution has examined, Noorudin Sheikh, does not inspire confidence and it can be inferred that he has never been to Nepal and neither has seen the duo there exchanging the alleged target maps which were later claimed to have been given to LeT,? the judge said.
While Ansari was accused of surveying the targets in Mumbai and making maps and handing it over to Ahmed in Nepal who in turn was accused of forwarding it to Lashkar bosses in Pakistan, Sheikh was cited as a witness who saw Ansari give Ahmed the maps in Nepal. But Ansari and Ahmed?s lawyers had raised doubts over Sheikh, accusing him of being on the payroll of Mumbai Police. Sheikh had gone missing after his testimony, forcing the police to launch a manhunt for him and sparking questions about his credibility.
The court also ripped apart the theory of the police that Kasab and his partner Abu Ismail were heading to Malabar Hill to attack targets there including the Raj Bhavan based on a map they said they found on Ismail. ?The map found on Ismail seems to be more confusing than guiding,? Tahaliyani said. ?Wikipedia and Google have better quality maps and why would a terror organisation rely on hand-made maps??
The court also said that the reaction time of the police was not as good as it should have been on the night of the attack. Ismail and Kasab would not have reached Chowpatty at all if the police had rushed additional forces to Cama Hospital in time and the face-off could have ended there, the judge said.
