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Ajmal Qasab again in news now.
Kasab denies all charges, claims forced confession
TIMES NEWS NETWORK & AGENCIES 18 December 2009, 12:20pm IST
MUMBAI: In a dramatic twist to the 26/11 terror attacks case, main accused Mohammad Ajmal Kasab on Friday retracted from his earlier statement
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Denying all charges against him, Kasab said the statement was made under duress.
Kasab today claimed before a special court that he was arrested on the night of November 25 and that he was falsely implicated in the 26/11 case.
“On the night of November 25, I was roaming in Juhu. I had gone to see a movie when the local police arrested me,” Kasab told the court.
He also told the court that he was arranging for a house in Mumbai.
“I had a passport and I’m not the first one to come from Pakistan to Juhu area. I was arranging for a house here. The local police first arrested me and then handed me over to the crime branch,” he said.
The Pakistani gunman also said in court today he had met US-based Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Coleman Headley in jail some time after the attacks.
The lone captured terrorist further said that on November 27, he was produced before a magistrate who then took his custody.
“I have not given any confession before the magistrate and my statement has been falsely implicated,” Kasab added.
“I was not present at VT,” said Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, referring to Victoria Terminus, the former name of Mumbai’s main railway station where he is accused of opening fire on November 26.
“I do not know what has happened. Witnesses have come and recognized me because my face looks similar to the terrorists,” he told the judge at the special prison court in Mumbai where he is on trial.
Kasab claimed that “The police have killed the main accused who resembles me and they told me that his name was Abu Ali.”
“I am his look alike. His height and face resembles mine,” Kasasb said.
“That is why I was picked up. I have been framed,” he added, speaking in Hindi.
Kasab, who claimed that he was 20 years old, also denied that he was with Abu Ismail during the attack at CST (VT Station).
He rejected the evidence of a witness, Bharat Tamore, that he was seen with 10 terrorists at Badhwar Park when they got down from a dinghy there.
Kasab said that “do baatein bolkar katham karna chaahtha hoon, aaj bhi mujhe bolne ka mauka nahin mila tho…” (I want to finish by saying two lines, if I don’t get a chance to speak then…)
The judge cut him short and told him that he had to answer questions the court put to him.
Kasab disagreed with Tamore’s version that he had seen the 10 terrorists at Badhwar Park wearing saffron jackets and carrying bags on their back and also a handbag.
Tamore had told the judge in his evidence that he saw two of the 10 terrorists closely and that Kasab was one of them.
Several questions were put to Kasab based on the evidences given by witnesses.
Asked about the dinghy, Kasab said that he did not know anything about the dingy. “I saw the dingy for the first time in the court,” he said.
The case of the prosecution is that the terrorists had reached Mumbai via the dingy.
The lone surviving terrorist captured by the police during the Mumbai attacks was scheduled to give a statement today on evidence introduced against him by the prosecution for his alleged role in the 26/11 terror attacks.
Kasab had made three confessions after his arrest. One was admission of guilt before police soon after his arrest, the other confession was made before a magistrate which is admissible as evidence and the third one was in the trial court when the accused accepted his guilt partially.
Clearly Kasab has decided not to stick to any of these confessions when the court recorded his version today.