Fifteen years after 26/11, many perpetrators yet to face trial

Another accused, Zaibuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, who is alleged to have coordinated with the ten terrorists who had entered the city on the night of the attacks through a control room in Pakistan, is facing trial which is currently stalled. If the Mumbai Police’s attempt at getting Rana extradited from the US is successful, he will face a separate trial.

On the night of the attack, the heroic act of sub-inspector Tukaram Omble had led to the arrest of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab. Kasab was one of the ten terrorists who entered the city for the attack and was the only one to have been captured alive on the night of November 26, 2008.

Initially, the police had filed multiple cases in various police stations as per the jurisdiction where the attacks took place. Later the probe revealed that the attacks were part of a larger conspiracy by terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba. The probe was taken over by Mumbai Police crime branch.

In February 2009, the police filed its first chargesheet in the case, running to over 11,000 pages, with over 2,000 named as witnesses. The police named 35 wanted accused, including Hafeez Saeed, for conspiring and assisting the attacks. Three including Kasab and two Indian nationals were arrested and named in the chargesheet. The state had appointed special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam to conduct the trial.

Initially, no lawyers were willing to represent Kasab and the court had to find a lawyer so that a fair trial can be given to him. Due to security reasons, the state government also built a high-security courtroom within the Mumbai Central Prison or Arthur Road jail, for the trial. Kasab was ferried from his prison cell to the courtroom for the trial.

The trial began in 2009 and after examination of witnesses including victims who had been shot at or saw Kasab gunning down indiscriminately their family members and others at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, and other evidence, he was found guilty of various charges including murder and waging war against the state on May 3, 2010.

Two other arrested persons were acquitted. On May 6, 2010, Special Judge ML Tahaliyani sentenced Kasab to death. After the Bombay High Court upheld the death penalty on February 21, 2011 and the Supreme Court too upheld it on August 29, 2012, Kasab filed for mercy with a plea before the President. After it was refused, Kasab was moved from the Mumbai jail to Yerwada jail in Pune and hanged on November 21, 2012.

Around the time Kasab’s plea was being heard in the Supreme Court, the Mumbai Police claimed another success in the case with the arrest of Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal in June 2012. The police had relied on information gathered from Kasab’s probe which showed that an Indian man had taught them Hindi. Ansari was arrested as the police claimed to have ascertained he was the man Kasab was referring to.

In October 2012, the police filed a supplementary chargesheet against Ansari, naming 12 more Pakistani citizens as wanted accused. The police also added details of the confrontation that the police carried out between Ansari and Kasab at Arthur road jail.

After Kasab’s hanging, Ansari was kept in the same cell as the Pakistani terrorist. Between 2013 and 2015, Ansari approached court various times and went on a hunger strike against being kept in solitary confinement, claiming that his mental health was getting affected. The trial in the case against Ansari began in 2015, where Ansari pleaded not guilty to the charges claiming that he is not Abu Jundal. In 2015, the court also granted pardon to David Headley, the

Pakistani American who scouted targets for the attacks. Headley is serving 35 years in a US prison for his role in the attacks and other crimes but pleas for his extradition were rejected. Headley was examined as a witness for the prosecution against Ansari in 2016, via video-conference. While a few other witnesses including victims were examined in the trial against Ansari, the case has been stalled since 2018 after a stay by the Bombay High Court.

This was over an appeal filed by Delhi Police officials against a special court’s order which directed travel documents of Ansari from the time of his arrest in 2012, to be handed over to him for his defence. The police claimed that it was privileged information and hence it cannot be shared. The plea is yet to come up for hearing.

Last month, the police also filed a supplementary chargesheet against Rana. The police have claimed in it that Rana was in the city days before the attack, from November 11 to November 21, 2008. The police claimed that he had done coordination with Headley during that time. Rana is currently under detention in the US and an appeal against his extradition to India is pending and is likely to come up next month.