Meticulous work by investigators made case watertight: ATS

Within hours of the Supreme Court’s verdict upholding the death sentence for 26/11 Mumbai terror attack convict Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Rakesh Maria said that Kasab could be found guilty beyond doubt because of the flawless chargesheet that was submitted by the Maharashtra police.

Pointing out the fact that the entire conspiracy was hatched on foreign soil, Maria said, “Being the investigators, we had a mammoth task in collecting the evidences on how the conspiracy was hatched and how the terrorists had been trained by the conspirators. In spite of this, we managed to collect enough evidences, found out how the conspiracy was hatched and put it precisely in the chargesheet which was submitted to the court in the stipulated period of 90 days.”

According to Maria, the case became watertight because the investigators had done their work meticulously.

“We submitted a 14,284-page of chargesheet to the court on February 25, 2009. Before that we examined 6,057 people, of which 357 were eyewitnesses,” he said.
Maria added, “It was a landmark case and it had not only attracted the attention of every Indian, but also the entire world. It was a matter of pride, when the sessions court pronounced the death sentence and later the high court upheld the judgment. Now, the SC has also upheld it,” he said.

Maria said the credit goes to the central agencies and the 99 officers who were involved in the investigations. He said that investigators, senior police inspector Mahale, his associate Dinesh Kadam, advocate Ujjwal Nikam and Subramaniyam must be given their due credit.

While asked about the acquittal of other accused Fahim Harshad Mohammad Yusuf Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed Shaikh in the case, Maria said, “We are yet to get the copy of the SC judgment. We had collected enough evidences. But we will go through the judgment after getting a copy of it.”