By IANS,
Mumbai : Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist caught alive during the terror attack on this city last November, was Tuesday given 10 days to study the charge sheet in the case.
Judge M.L. Tahilyani, who is trying the case, rejected Kasab’s plea to be handed over a copy of the 11,500-page charge sheet in Urdu. However, he gave 10 days to Kasab and Kasab’s lawyer S.G. Abbas Kazmi to study the current charge sheet, which is in English, Hindi and Marathi. The next hearing will be on May 2.
Kazmi told journalists 10 days were not sufficient, but it would help him and his client get a feel of the case. “This is not a delay tactic on our part, we are giving full cooperation to the prosecution in the trial,” Kazmi asserted.
Before that, in court, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam sought a medical and dental examination of Kasab to determine his age. Kasab has claimed he is below 18 and should be tried in a court for juveniles.
Aejaz Naqvi, lawyer of Lashkar-e-Taiba activist Sabahuddin Mohammed – who is being tried as an accomplice – said in court that his client wants union minister A.R. Antulay and Maharashtra minister Narayan Rane in the witness box during the trial.
Naqvi said examining the two ministers as witnesses could help throw more light on the case, since both had made a number of statements pertaining to the incident.
Antulay had raised doubts over the killing of certain police officers during the attacks, including former Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare. Over 170 people were killed in the attacks.
Rane had kicked up a political storm when he claimed that some politicians he refused to name had links with terrorists.