First eye witness of 26/11 case says Kasab shot dead cop

Mumbai, May 8 (PTI) The first eye witness account of
the Mumbai terror attack case was recorded in the special
court Friday in which the witness named prime accused Mohammed
Ajmal Amir Kasab as the terrorist who gunned down a policemen
and injured another at Girgaum Chowpatty on November 26 last
year.

The witness, Police Sub Inspector (PSI) Bhaskar Kadam
pointed at Kasab and said, "he is the one who had fired at
policemen Tukaram Omble and Sanjay Govilkar".

Omble died of bullet injuries and Govilkar was
injured.

Kasab smiled and appeared to be calm while listening
to the deposition of the witness.

Earlier, Kasab's lawyer Abbas Kazmi refused to admit
83 documents, prompting special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam
to allege that defence lawyer was trying to delay the trial.

These documents were formal papers pertaining to post
mortem reports and inquest panchnamas of people who were
killed in terror attacks and not related to Kasab directly,
Nikam said, adding, there was no harm in admitting these
papers.

To this, the defence lawyer said, "it is our
discretion and no one can compel us to admit documents".

However, judge M L Tahaliyani, ordered the prosecution
to go ahead with the examination of witnesses, despite the
stand of the defence lawyer not to admit the documents.

The witness gave a graphic description of how Kasab
and the other terrorist were overpowered by a police team at
Girgaum Chowpatty. While one of them was killed in police
firing, the other (Kasab) survived with injuries, he said.

The witness said there were two terrorists in the
Skoda car which was stolen to escape and was intercepted at
Girgaum Chowpatty after police was alerted by control room.

The car came in great speed and stopped 50 metres in
front of them, then it took a U-turn and hit the divider on
right hand side of the road. The police team then rushed to
the car and the two occupants raised their hands to surrender,
the witness said.

"One of the terrorists on driver's seat (Abu Ismael)
fired from the car's window at police and we returned fire in
which he (Ismael) was serious injured. The other person
(Kasab) then got out from the left side of the car and
pretended to fall down", he said.

As ASI Omble and API Sanjay Govilkar approached
towards Kasab, he started firing, the witness said.

Omble took the bullets while pouncing on Kasab and
tried to disarm him. After Omble was injured, a police team
reigned lathis on the terrorist and snatched his AK-47 rifle,
the witness narrated.

The policemen were taken to nearby hospital in a
police van, while Ismail and Kasab were moved to another
hospital in an ambulance, the witness said. PTI SVS
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