NIA wants to quiz Kasab in other case, not for 26/11
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The Maharashtra government on Thursday informed the Bombay high court that it had not accorded permission to National Investigating Agency (NIA) to interrogate Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab in the 26/11 case and that the agency wanted to question him in some other matter.
Government counsel Ujjwal Nikam submitted that NIA wanted to interrogate Kasab in some other case and not in the 26/11 terror attacks case.
Accordingly, justices Ranjana Desai and R.V. More disposed of a petition filed by Kasab asking whether NIA had registered an independent case against him and also if it would interrogate him in the 26/11 case.
Kasab, who has been awarded death sentence for his role in killing 166 people in the Mumbai attacks, also sought to know under what provisions Maharashtra had permitted NIA to question him.
The high court is hearing confirmation of his sentence and his appeal against conviction. Nikam contended that the news report (on the basis of which Kasab had filed the petition) was "distorted" and NIA wanted to interrogate him in some other case.
The court, however, cautioned the state that if at all Kasab was to be questioned in a criminal case, his interrogation should be as per law.
Kasab's petition asked "whether NIA, which was set up after the 26/11 attacks, was authorised to conduct probe and file a chargesheet?... Why till date it had not done so?"
The petition also questioned whether investigation in all the 12 cases registered pertaining to the 26/11 attacks was assigned to Mumbai Crime Branch or NIA? It also asked whether the probe by Mumbai Crime Branch was legal?
Kasab also questioned the report which said that his death sentence would be suspended until NIA finishes probe. Can a sentence be suspended when its confirmation is pending before high court, he asked.
Kasab raised a legal point whether NIA can register an independent case against him in respect of the same 26/11 terror attack in view of section 300 of CrPc which says a person convicted of an offence cannot be tried again.
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