26/11 case: Bombay high court asks police to produce Faheem Ansari tomorrow to verify fake passport

The Bombay high court today directed police to produce Faheem Ansari, acquitted by a trial court of the charges of facilitating 26/11 attacks, before it tomorrow to verify police claims that he was holding a fake Pakistani passport on which his photograph was affixed.

The direction was given by Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice RV More, who said they would verify Ansari's face with the photograph appearing on the "fake" Pakistani passport.

The prosecution's case is that Ansari, a suspected member of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, had procured a passport in Pakistan in the assumed name of Hassan Hamad and that the travel document carried the photograph of Ansari.

The then interior minister of Pakistan had confirmed to Indian high commissioner that the passport was  issued on the strength of fake documents given by applicant (Faheem Ansari).

Government counsel Ujjwal Nikam argued that Ansari may be produced in the high court so that the Judges can see Ansari and verify his photograph affixed on the passport.

Ansari is lodged in Arthur Road Central Jail here after he was brought from Uttar Pradesh, where he was arrested in other terror cases.

Meanwhile, the judges informed Nikam that they had already visited the 26/11 terror sites to get a first hand impression of the topography. They said they had gone to Chhatrapati Shivaji Railway terminus holding platforms tickets and paid a surprise visit by not informing authorities.

The high court is hearing confirmation of death sentence given  to Pakistan terrorist Ajmal Kasab for his role in the attacks. His appeal against the penalty and state's plea against acquittal of Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed are also being heard.

Nikam said Ansariand Sabauddin Ahmed, both acquitted by the trial court earlier this year, had facilitated the commission of the November 2008 terror attacks by drawing maps of targets and passing them over to Pakistan-based LeT.

Both were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police in connection with the attack on CRPF jawans in Rampur on the night of December 31, 2007.

Ansari was apprehended on February 10, 2008. A Pakistani passport and 10 maps of Mumbai locations were seized from him, the government counsel said.

Nikam submitted that LeT leaders Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Abu Kafa had asked Ansari and Sabauddin to prepare maps of Mumbai sites which would be attacked. Accordingly, they made the maps and handed over to them.

In February 2008, much prior to the attacks, Nuruddin Shaikh, a friend of Ansari, met the latter in Nepal. In Kathmandu, Ansari introduced Nuruddin to Sabauddin, who asked Ansari whether he had finished the work assigned by Kafa. In reply, Ansari handed over maps to Sabauddin, he said.

However, the trial court had disbelieved the version of Nuruddin on the ground that no corroborative evidence was produced by the prosecution. The trial court had also observed that Nuruddin had gone to Nepal to stay with his friend Bharat Thakur. But prosecution had not examined Thakur.

Nikam argued that Nuruddin was an independent witness and his friendship with Ansari had not been challenged in the cross examination by the defence. There was no need to produce corroborative evidence and Nuruddin's version can stand on its own, the government counsel submitted.