26/11 trial: Kasab's lawyer terminated

The special 26/11 trial court has terminated Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab's lawyer Abbas Kazmi, observing that he was "not co-operating with it in the interest of justice."

The order on Kazmi's termination came after he refused to consider the court's suggestion to pick out 71 witnesses out of the total 340, divided into 12 categories including claimants of the deceased, panch witnesses and doctors.

The court had asked Kazmi to first consider how many witnesses he would like to cross-examine from the first category of 71 witnesses.

He, however, stuck to his stand that he wanted to examine all the 340 witnesses and refused to consider the court's suggestion.

"Kazmi is not co-operating with the court in the interest of justice. He is trying to drag the trial and is unnecessarily consuming the time of the court," the court observed on Monday.

"It appears that Kazmi has developed a feeling that he has become indispensable and without him the trial cannot go on. He has developed a feeling that because of his appointment as Kasab's lawyer, the court is helpless without him," it said.

"This gives out a wrong signal to everyone and it is high time that either Kazmi withdraws from the case himself or the court terminates his appointment," it added.

The court is likely to consider the appointment of one more advocate in the place of Kazmi.