Bombay HC Clears Way for 26/11 Handler Abu Jundal’s Trial to Resume
Mumbai: The long-pending case of Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, who taught Hindi and local mannerisms to 10 terrorists involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, will finally continue on Monday with the Bombay High Court overturning a lower court order asking the authorities to hand over confidential documents to the accused. The bench of justice RN Laddha allowed the petition filed by Delhi Police, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Ministry of External Affairs challenging the court’s order. 2018 directive requiring them to provide certain confidential documents sought by Ansari.
The hearing in the 26/11 terror attacks case against Ansari was pending since 2018 pending adjudication of the petition filed by government officials.
Ansari is accused of not only planning the attacks but also personally training the ten Pakistani terrorists who struck Mumbai on November 26, 2008, teaching them especially Hindi and important details about Mumbai’s topography to help them adapt.
Ansari had applied to a special court in Mumbai to obtain some documents that would prove his claim that he was arrested in Saudi Arabia and then deported to India. The court accepted his request in 2018.
Delhi Police’s Special Cell claimed that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Ansari was nabbed from outside the airport in the national capital.
In 2018, the court had directed the authorities to provide the documents sought by Ansari and directed the authorities to approach the Bombay High Court for a stay of the order.
Speaking on behalf of the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued for annulment of the trial court’s order, claiming it was “unlawful”. The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the Centre’s petition, paving the way for the resumption of the case.
In the attacks carried out by ten heavily armed Pakistani terrorists who entered the financial capital from the Arabian Sea on the night of November 26, 2008, 166 people, including foreigners, lost their lives.
Investigators allege that Ansari played a key role in handling the terrorists. Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist captured alive, was convicted by a special court in 2010 and sentenced to death and hanged at Pune’s Yerwada Jail in November 2012.
Ansari is facing multiple terrorism charges by the Delhi Police, the National Investigation Agency and the police forces of Maharashtra, Bangalore and Gujarat.
In 2016, Ansari was among the seven convicts sentenced to life imprisonment by the special Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) court in the 2006 Aurangabad arms carrying case.
He managed to lie to the police and drove to Malegaon and fled to Bangladesh from where he fled to Pakistan a few days later.
Ansari’s name had resurfaced as the mute man in the Karachi-based control room who gave instructions to the ten terrorists who carried out the 26/11 terror attack.
In 2012, agencies narrowed down his location to Saudi Arabia and confirmed it with DNA samples taken from his family in Beed. He was deported from Saudi Arabia to India in June 2012.
During interrogation, Ansari described his relationship with various Lashker commanders, his meetings with the terrorist group’s founder, Hafeez Saeed, and his recruitment plans using cyberspace.
