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Kasab's lawyer seeks four weeks' time

April 21, 2009 16:31 IST
Advocate for Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone gunman arrested for his alleged involvement in the November 26 terror strikes, on Tuesday sought four weeks time to reply to the draft charges proposed by the prosecution. Abbas Kazmi, who was appointed by the court last week to represent Kasab, sought time to study the case.

The prosecution had on Monday proposed 312 charges against Kasab and two others for their alleged involvement in the November 26 terror strikes which claimed over 160 lives.

Kasab also asked the court on Tuesday for a copy of the chargesheet to be translated for him into Urdu since he was unable to understand the copy given to him by the police. He had earlier sought a copy of the chargesheet in Urdu saying that he would be able to understand it better.

Special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam asked the court to order an inquiry to determine the actual age of Kasab and sought that the prosecution should be allowed to submit its findings.

Kasab's lawyer said he had no objection to it. Kasab, a resident of Faridkot in Pakistan, had claimed in an application filed last week that he was a juvenile. However, the application was dismissed by special judge M L Tahilyani. The court has reserved its judgement in the applications and adjourned proceedings till Wednesday.

Another accused, Sabauddin Ahmed on Tuesday pleaded through his lawyer Ejaz Naqvi that he had been subjected to third degree torture methods while in police custody and sought the dismissal of the concerned police officials.

He also sought that two alleged Federal Bureau of Investigation officials, identified by him only as James and Mike, who had interrogated him should be arrested.

Special Judge Tahilyani has asked the police to file its reply to Sabauddin's application.

 Sabauddin and Faheem Ansari, two alleged Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives, are facing trial with Kasab for allegedly providing information about locations in Mumbai which was used by the terror group to execute the November 26 attack.

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