Ajmal Qasab, the key suspect in Mumbai terror attacks on Friday rejected all charges against him in the case.
Ajmal Qasab, the key suspect in Mumbai terror attacks on Friday rejected all charges against him in the case.
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The Pakistani gunman went back on the confession he made before the magistrate, saying that he had not participated in the terror attacks at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) on November 26 last year.
Qasab stunned the courtroom by saying that he had come to Mumbai to work in Bollywood films and had never seen an AK-47 rifle in his life.
Retracting the confession made before a magistrate Feb 20 this year, Kasab told a special court that he had come to Mumbai at least 20 days before the 26/11 terror attacks.
"I was arrested three days before the 26/11 attacks, when I was going around Juhu area with some friends. I was in police custody at the time of the attacks," he told the stunned courtroom.
Qasab also denied that he had planted a bomb in a taxi. Qasab told judge M L Tahiliyani that he had confessed before magistrate but it has been recorded wrongly.
Qasab's first recorded statement
Qasab, 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.
Qasab 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. Qasab 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 Qasab was one of them.
Several questions were put to Qasab based on the evidences given by witnesses. Asked about the dinghy, Qasab 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.
Asked whether he confessed before the Magistrate, Qasab said that he had confessed but it had been not recorded properly.
Qasab denied that he had told the Magistrate that he and Abu Ismail had hired a taxi to CST. He also said that he had not told the Magistrate that Ismail was in the driver's seat and he himself was sitting behind and that he planted a bomb underneath the driver's seat while Ismail was talking to the driver.
"I did not tell the Magistrate that on reaching CST that they saw a lesser crowd than what was shown to them in a training camp in Pakistan," Qasab said. "I did not contact Abu Hamza (absconding accused).
My mobile Sony Ericsson was lost and I was not in a position to talk to anybody," he said. To a question that witness Natwarlal, father of a 11-year-old girl, who was injured in the attack, had seen him and another terrorist at CST, Qasab replied that he was not present there.
"Maybe Natwarlal had said that there was firing on people but I was not there -- I don't know," Qasab said. To another question that Natwarlal had recognised him in Court, he said that anybody could recognise him "by having seen my photograph in newspapers."
About Abu Ismail, Qasab said that "I don't know who he is. Ismail may have been involved in the attack but I don't know him."
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