Pakistani panel in Mumbai to examine 26/11 witnesses

An eight-member Pakistani judicial commission arrived here Thursday to record statements of key officials who were part of the Indian investigation into the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, an official said.

The panel flew to Mumbai from Delhi, a day after their arrival in the capital from Pakistan.

Though their meetings in Mumbai are being kept under wraps from security reasons, but sources told IANS that they will be cross examining an investigating officer, a magistrate and two doctors who had done autopsies of nine slain terrorists and victims of the carnage over three years ago.

Among their first engagements would be to record the statements of investigating officer Ramesh Mahale and chief metropolitan magistrate R.V. Sawant Waghule, said the sources.

Waghule had recorded on Nov 27, 2008 the first confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab who was the only Pakistani gunman among the 10 attackers captured alive during the three days of mayhem that left 166 people, including foreigners, dead.

The panel will record the statements of two doctors of government hospitals – Sir J.J. Hospital’s medical officer (forensic) Ganesh Nitukar and civic-run Nair Hospital medical officer (forensic) Shailesh Mohit. The two had carried out autopsies.

Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, who directed the trial in the case resulting in award of death penalty to Kasab, will assist the Pakistan judicial commission in in Mumbai over the next few days, the sources said.

The judicial commission comprises of four defence lawyers, two prosecutors, a member from the joint investigation team and a court official.