The eight-member Pakistan judicial commission that is in Mumbai to examine Indian witnesses of the 26/11 terror attack did not cross-examine two of those witnesses on Tuesday.
The commission — comprising lead defence counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed, Riaz Akram Cheema, Khizer Hayat, Raja Ehsanullah Satti, FIA special prosecutor Chaudhry Mohammad Azhar, Syed Husnain Abuzar Pirzada, FIA deputy director Faqir Mohammad and court official Abdul Hameed — instead urged additional chief metropolitan magistrate P.Y. Ladekar to allow the inspection of the dinghy and other articles that were used by the terrorists.
“The commission didn’t cross-examine two doctors — Dr Shailesh Mohite and Dr Ganesh Nithurkar — who had conducted the post-mortem on nine terrorists,” said special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, representing government of India in the case. The two doctors only gave a brief account of the post-mortems performed by them.
On the question of the government’s support to the commission, Mr Nikam said, “We will give full support to commission. They will be here till Wednesday as depositions of two other witnesses is also not over.”
The court on Tuesday asked Mr Nikam to produce the dinghy, its Yamaha engine, cellphones and Global Positioning System (GPS) before the panel on Wednesday. When the court asked Mr Nikam whether the government had any objection to this, Mr Nikam replied in the negative.
Now, two remaining witnesses — magistrate R.V. Sawant-Waghule, who had recorded Kasab’s confession, and the investigating officer, Ramesh Mahale will depose on Wednesday. The commission’s cross examinations are in connection with the prosecution of seven suspects held in Pakistan for their alleged role in the crime.