Ajmal Amir Kasab Trial: Court grants Kazmi time till May 2 t

The designated court, hearing the trial of 26/11 Mumbai attacks, granted time till May second to Abbas Kazmi, representing lone arrested Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab, to go through the 11,000-page chargesheet and other related documents. Mr Kazmi had yesterday filed an application before Judge M L Tahiliyani seeking four weeks time to go through the documents before submitting a reply to the opening of the trial proceedings by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam. While passing the order, Judge Tahiliyani said the plea seeking four weeks time was unreasonable as the court has been assigned with only 26/11 terror attacks case to conduct trial proceedings on day-to-day basis. Hence, he said, it was not appropriate for the court to grant the mentioned time period but would allow 11 days of time to the defence lawyer and address before the court on May two with all preparation. The court had yesterday rejected another application of Mr Kazmi seeking a translated copy of the chargesheet in Urdu as his client, Kasab, did not understand English completely. Rejecting Mr Kazmi’s application, Judge Tahiliyani said as per law there is no such provision to provide a chargesheet or any other related documents in the language of the accused and that the accused has to understand the court language. The public prosecutor had also argued that there was no provision in law to provide a copy of the chargesheet in the language of the accused and that in 1998, Maharashtra government had issued circular stating that the proceedings of the court, barring the High Court, should be in Marathi. To another application, filed by Mr Kazmi praying to the court to order an inquiry to determine the approximate age of Kasab stating that he was a minor at the time of the terror attack, Judge Tahiliyani said the decision in this regard will be taken on April 24. Meanwhile, Mr Ejaj Naqvi, defence lawyer for another 26/11 attacks accused Sabauddin Ahmad, has withdrawn his yesterday’s application filed before the metropolitan magistrate stating that third-degree torture was meted out to his client while he was in police custody. Judge Tahaliyani had yesterday asked Mr Naqvi whether he had gone through the documents provided by the metropolitan magistrate, including the medical reports. To this, Mr Naqvi replied in negative.

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