New Delhi: Former Indian Inspector General of Police S M Mushrif has revealed that Ajmal Kasab – the only accused who was allegedly captured alive in 2008 Mumbai attacks – was arrested before 2006 from Kathmandu by the Indian agency RAW with the help of Nepalese forces.
In his explosive book called ‘Who killed Karkare?’, Mushrif said that there were six individuals involved in the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus-Cama-Rangbhavan operation.
Mushrif said that Ajmal Kasab, the only alleged attacker captured alive, was already in police custody and there was no evidence linking him to the attack.
Anita Uddaiya, a witness who not only saw the attackers landing at Badhwar Park but actually spoke to them, confirmed there were six individuals, and that Kasab was not one of them. Uddaiya was ultimately dropped as a prosecution witness and had a police case filed against her when she refused to change her story; yet she was able to identify the bodies of the six in J J Hospital, suggesting that she was a reliable witness.
The book further discloses that reports as well as a transcript of police communications established that the two gunmen in a vehicle intercepted by the police at Girgaum Chowpathy were both killed, so Kasab could not have been one of them. The much-publicized photographs of Kasab at the station could have been taken before or even after the incident, if he was in the custody of the IB.
From his experience as a police officer, Mushrif opines that recovering DNA samples or fingerprints from a fishing trawler or inflatable dinghy that had been at sea for hours would have been essentially impossible. He pours scorn on the ridiculous procedure whereby an accused whose pictures had been publicized for months was purportedly identified by witnesses, Himalmag writes while reviewing the book.
The book surmises that Ajmal – like many others – was arrested for the sole purpose to be presented as a substantial ‘evidence’ for ‘terror attacks’ even before they took place. The author went on to say that the practice of kidnapping of innocent people from Kathmandu and presenting them as terrorists after keeping them in custody is very common in India.
It is worth mentioning here that a Pakistani lawyer C M Farooque, in a media interview on 15 December 2008 had said that many people, including Ajmal Kasab, were arrested before 2006 from Kathmandu by the Indian agencies with the help of Nepalese forces. He said Ajmal Kasab went to the Napalese capital on a business tour. His application regarding his arrest was lying pending in the Nepalese Supreme Court in which a reply was sought from Nepalese forces and Indian High Commission.
C M Farooque Advocate said that the Nepalese forces arrested almost 200 people including Ajmal Kasab before 2006 and his application in this regard was lying pending in the Nepalese Supreme Court in which Nepalese forces and Indian High Commission were made respondents.
The advocate said that he wrote letters to Pakistan and Indian governments in this regard. He said that he had also addressed a press conference in Nepal highlighting the issue in which he revealed that the Nepalese forces arrested Ajmal Kasab and many others and held them at an unknown place and that these people would be used for their ulterior designs at some later stage. He said that he had no contact with Ajmal Kasab ever since he disappeared.