Rana verdict contradictory: Ujjwal Nikam
Eminent lawyer Ujjwal Nikam on Friday termed as “contradictory” the decision of a US court to clear Pakistan-born Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana in the 2008 Mumbai attack but said it would not affect the ongoing legal proceedings against the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), which India holds responsible for the carnage.
Nikam, who prosecuted the Mumbai terror attack trial and secured the death sentence for Ajmal Kasab, said the Chicago court judgement also raised serious questions of law since “the law of conspiracy is common everywhere in the world”. “Accordingly, once a criminal conspiracy is hatched for committing any illegal act, then all the participants of the conspiracy are liable for it whether they actually took part in it or not,” Nikam told IANS.
He said that the Chicago court has found Rana and his associate David Coleman Headley guilty of hatching the criminal conspiracy with the LeT for committing certain criminal acts, which was the objective of the terror organisation.
“While the Chicago court has held Rana liable only in the criminal conspiracy for the attack on the Danish newspaper, how is it justified to exonerate him from the conspiracy in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack,” Nikam said, terming the verdict as “contradictory”.
On Thursday, Rana was cleared by a federal court in Chicago in the Nov 26-29, 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack that claimed 166 lives, but was convicted of helping the Pakistan-based LeT. He was also convicted for his role in a thwarted plot targeting a Danish newspaper that printed controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad sparking protests in the Muslim world.
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