26/11 case: India agrees to allow officers to depose before Pak court

[gubbi]

26/11 case: India agrees to allow officers to depose before Pak court

India on Thursday agreed to allow officers investigating the Mumbai terror attacks depose before a Pakistani court through video conferencing, according to reports. According to CNN-IBN, the Union Law Ministry gave the green signal for Indian officials to depose before the Pakistani court.
Pakistan's anti-terror court had requested for statements from Indian officers, investigating the 26/11 case, who had recorded Ajmal Amir Kasab's statement by Friday.

Now, the government will approach the Bombay High Court to seek its consent if the judicial officer who recorded Kasab's statement can also testify in a Pakistani court.

Pakistan had requested India to record the statements of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate RV Sawant Waghule and investigating officer Ramesh Mahale.

The deposition by these officers will help to decide charges against LeT operations chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the report said.

India had earlier, provided copies of Kasab's statement that was recorded in Hindi and Marathi in the presence of Waghule.

According to the report, Pakistan then got the statement translated into English and had included the relevant portions in its chargesheet.

26/11 case: Indians to depose before Pak court

New Delhi: India on Thursday agreed to let officers investigating the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks depose before a Pakistani court through video conferencing.
Pakistan's anti terror court had requested for statements from Indian investigating officers of 26/11 case who had recorded Mumbai attacker Ajmal Amir Kasab's statement. The Union Law Ministry gave the permission for Indian officials to depose before the Pakistani court on Thursday, a day before Pakistan had asked for a response by India.
The Indian Government will now approach the Bombay High Court to seek its consent if the judicial officer who recorded Kasab's statement can also testify in a Pakistani court.

Pakistan had specifically asked for Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate RV Sawant Waghule and investigating officer Ramesh Mahale. The deposition by Waghule and Mahale will help to decided charges against terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
Pakistan has been claiming that the deposition by Indian officials is necessary because the charges against Lakhvi are based on Kasab's confessions.
India provided copies of the statement that was recorded in Hindi and Marathi in the presence of Waghule. Pakistan got translator Naseema Khatoon to translate it into English and included the relevant portions in its chargesheet.
Kasab had claimed in his confession that Lakhvi masterminded Mumbai attacks and Zarar Shah, in-charge of Lashkar-e-Toiba media wing, provided the mobile phones to the 10 Pakistani terrorists involved in 26/11 carnage.
Pakistani investigations have already corroborated and strengthened the case against Shah and others named by Kasab, the charges against Lakhvi are centered on his statement.

India not to send 26/11 judge to Pak for questioning

New Delhi: India will not send to Pakistan the magistrate who recorded the statement of lone captured 26/11 attacker Ajmal Amir Kasab, but is open to allowing him as well as the Investigating Officer (IO) to appear before a Pakistani court through video conferencing.

The decision is expected to be conveyed by the External Affairs Ministry to Pakistan shortly, sources said on Thursday.

Pakistan had asked India to send the Mumbai's Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R V Sawant Waghule, who had recorded the statement of lone 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab, to appear before its anti-terror court.

It has also demanded that the Investigating Officer Ramesh Mahale be sent there for deposition.

Waghule will not be sent to Pakistan, the sources said.

However, if the Bombay High Court permits, he can appear through video conferencing in a Pakistani court without being subjected to cross-examination, the sources said.

A petition is being moved in the Bombay High Court to allow the magistrate to appear through video conferencing.

Similarly, the government has decided to allow Mahale to appear in Pakistani court through video conferencing.

If Pakistan agrees to the proposal of questioning of the IO through video conferencing, it will have to make arrangements for the same, the sources said.

Pakistan has reportedly asked India to respond before Saturday as to whether it would send the magistrate and the Investigating Officer.

Pakistan's contention is that the charges against the seven Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) activists, including its operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, are based on Kasab's statement in Mumbai and hence the magistrate and the IO who were involved in recording that statement should appear before the anti-terror court there.

India has already provided to Pakistan copies of Kasab's statement that was recorded in Hindi and Marathi in the presence of Waghule. An English version is also available with Pakistan.


Read more at: India not to send 26/11 judge to Pak for questioning

 

[gubbi]

^^^ Well, thats a breakthrough of some sorts. Atleast something's better than nothing at all!

Now the Pakistani authorities will have something to work with. Lets look forward to more cooperation between the LEOs of our countries.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

^^^ Well, thats a breakthrough of some sorts. Atleast something's better than nothing at all!

Now the Pakistani authorities will have something to work with. Lets look forward to more cooperation between the LEOs of our countries.

BTW, if India does not want to send even a simple magistrate to Pakistan to testify in a case that Indians themselves claim is extremely important to them, why make all the fuss over the ISI chief not going to India ostensibly for 'talks' after the Mumbai attacks?

But good development overall - hopefully both the Pakistan Foreign Ministry and the Pakistani judges trying the cases will agree to the video conferencing testimony.

 

[Awesome]

This is good news and India has wasted more than a year and then finally relented. Now I hope India is done doing its dramas after it has extracted as much political mileage it could from the deaths of the Mumbai victims. Lets get back to the business of justice now.

---------- Post added at 10:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:55 PM ----------

India has to send in everybody that the Pakistani court demands.

 

[mjnaushad]

It will be a video confrecing.....Still something is better than nothing.

 

[RobbieS]

Lets hope this leads to somewhere and isnt just hogwash from GoP. Wish Headley could be summoned to give a statement as well. Then we would see the resolve of GoP in taking action against one of their own i.e. the ISI operatives that trained the terrorists.

 

[karan.1970]

BTW, if India does not want to send even a simple magistrate to Pakistan to testify in a case that Indians themselves claim is extremely important to them, why make all the fuss over the ISI chief not going to India ostensibly for 'talks' after the Mumbai attacks?

But good development overall - hopefully both the Pakistan Foreign Ministry and the Pakistani judges trying the cases will agree to the video conferencing testimony.

amen to that..

About ISI chief not coming to India.. I think the noise was more on the flip flop than the actual not coming to India. In reality, I dont think anyone was expecting that he would really travel.

But breakthru all the same. Hopefully something will move...

 

[mjnaushad]

Lets hope this leads to somewhere and isnt just hogwash from GoP. Wish Headley could be summoned to give a statement as well. Then we would see the resolve of GoP in taking action against one of their own i.e. the ISI operatives that trained the terrorists.

Here we go...We reached the conclusion that ISI trained them before anything proved......

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Lets hope this leads to somewhere and isnt just hogwash from GoP. Wish Headley could be summoned to give a statement as well. Then we would see the resolve of GoP in taking action against one of their own i.e. the ISI operatives that trained the terrorists.

Refrain from flaming by ranting about unsubstantiated rumors please. The Headley deposition is in the public record in the US, and the records include court testimony of US agents that interrogated him regarding what he revealed.

Nothing even close to the absurd allegations (regarding the ISI) seen in the Indian press and repeated by some Indian officials are part of that public record.

The only thing a Headley appearance would reveal is that the GoI and Indian media are blatant liars, but that is already pretty much established by the public record on Headley in the US.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

amen to that..

About ISI chief not coming to India.. I think the noise was more on the flip flop than the actual not coming to India. In reality, I dont think anyone was expecting that he would really travel.

Governments can change their minds on issues, especially an issue related to an unscheduled visit of an official. There was tremendous pressure on Zardari to cancel his scheduled State visit to Europe, specifically the UK after all, and he could have done so, even if with the excuse of floods.

There is nothing surprising about the decision to rescind the sudden announcement of the visit of the DG ISI, after more input was gathered from other officials and more analysis of the pros and cons had been done.

This was really an imaginary issue dredged up by the Indian media to bash Pakistan with and to use one of their choice words like 'flip flop, denial' etc. on.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Lets hope this leads to somewhere and isnt just hogwash from GoP. Wish Headley could be summoned to give a statement as well. Then we would see the resolve of GoP in taking action against one of their own i.e. the ISI operatives that trained the terrorists.

Here, read this - page 3 starts detailing the events around Headley's actions:

http://dig.abclocal.go.com/wls/documents/wls_031810_Headleypleafinal.pdf

 

[RobbieS]

Refrain from flaming by ranting about unsubstantiated rumors please. The Headley deposition is in the public record in the US, and the records include court testimony of US agents that interrogated him regarding what he revealed.

Nothing even close to the absurd allegations (regarding the ISI) seen in the Indian press and repeated by some Indian officials are part of that public record.

The only thing a Headley appearance would reveal is that the GoI and Indian media are blatant liars, but that is already pretty much established by the public record on Headley in the US.

Care to post it here? From what I read, of course from the Indian media that he took names of ISI officers.

 

[karan.1970]

Governments can change their minds on issues, especially an issue related to an unscheduled visit of an official. There was tremendous pressure on Zardari to cancel his scheduled State visit to Europe, specifically the UK after all, and he could have done so, even if with the excuse of floods.

There is nothing surprising about the decision to rescind the sudden announcement of the visit of the DG ISI, after more input was gathered from other officials and more analysis of the pros and cons had been done.

This was really an imaginary issue dredged up by the Indian media to bash Pakistan with and to use one of their choice words like 'flip flop, denial' etc. on.

Please notice the usage of word Noise in my post. As I said it was realistically not expected of him to come to India at that point of time, given the sentiments.

Didnt use the flip flop in any negative sense...