The Bombay High Court on Friday stayed the 26/11 terror attacks trial against alleged LeT operative Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal pending hearing of a plea filed by the Delhi Police against a lower court order, which asked them to provide travel documents to the accused.
The Delhi police’s Special Cell had approached the high court earlier this month claiming privilege over the documents and urged the court to quash and set aside the trial court’s order.
Justice Nitin Sambre today posted the petition for hearing on June 11, but stayed the trial against Jundal till then. The petitioner’s counsel Hiten Venegaonkar argued that the documents were classified and hence could not be shared with the defense. Jundal’s lawyer Yug Chaudhary, however, argued that the rights of the accused were being curtailed.
The trial court had last month instructed that the travel documents be shared with Jundal’s lawyer Abdul Wahab Khan after an application was made by them. The trial against Jundal has been going on since over a year and the prosecution had last year recorded the statements of Pakistani-origin US national David Headley, who had held out a recce of the spots in Mumbai, which were attacked.
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According to the prosecution, Jundal allegedly coordinated the November 26, 2008 attacks from a terror control room in Karachi. After the carnage, which left 166 people lost their lives and over 300 wounded critically, he reportedly shifted to Saudi Arabia.
Jundal’s lawyer has been arguing that the Saudi government deported Jundal, and three Indian police officers accompanied him on the flight to Delhi. The defense sought to review Jundal’s travel papers and the passenger list prepared by the airways, in which Jundal and the officers came to the national capital.
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