The noted lawyer thinks if US court accepted David Headley version, it should have convicted Rana.
Though a Chicago court on Friday acquitted Tahawwur Rana of plotting the 26/11 attacks in the city, special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam who fought the trial in Mumbai said that, though disappointing, the verdict has a bright side — it shows that Lashkar-E-Taiba (LeT), which is behind the attack, operates from Pakistani soil, and steps have to be taken to bring to justice the mastermind, Hafeez Sayeed. He also said that the verdict will not affect the proceedings against Ajmal Kasab, who has been given the death sentence for participating in the attacks.
A US jury on Thursday convicted Rana, a businessman, of supporting the LeT, while letting him off the 26/11 charge. Nikam said: “Pakistan has denied serious allegations of state-sponsored terrorism for long, but now it will be difficult for them to carry on with the stand.”
He added: “It pains me to hear how Rana was exonerated from the criminal conspiracy of 26/11 attacks, particularly when co-accused David Headley’s evidence about complicity of both of them has been accepted by the court. The law of conspiracy in USA, UK, India and Pakistan is clear, to the effect that once a conspiracy is hatched and the participants have been found involved, then it is not necessary that the conspirators should commit overt acts as the conspiracy itself is a punishable offence.”
“If the US court has accepted Headley’s evidence, Rana had facilitated him in Mumbai, and so he is also a part of the conspiracy by the LeT. He also should have been held responsible for the attacks,” Nikam opined.
However, this judgement is significant for the judicial finding of the American court that Headley was a conspirator of the 26/11 terror attacks. This finding can be used in the 26/11 attack trial in Pakistan, Nikam said.
“Pakistan should now implead Headley as a wanted accused and, after tendering pardon to him, record his evidence through video conference for punishing the participants of 26/11 terror attacks against whom the trial is pending in the neighbouring country,” he said. —With agency inputs
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