The long-stalled trial of Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, who taught Hindi and local manners to 10 terrorists involved in the gruesome 11/26 Mumbai terror attacks, will finally resume as the Bombay High Court on Monday set aside a lower court’s order asking authorities to hand over confidential documents to the accused.
Justice RN Laddha allowed a petition filed by the Delhi Police, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of External Affairs challenging the trial court’s 2018 directive requiring them to provide specific confidential documents sought by Ansari.
The trial in the 26/11 terror attacks case against Ansari has been suspended since 2018 pending the resolution of a petition filed by government authorities. Ansari is accused of not only planning the attacks but also personally trained the ten Pakistani terrorists who struck Mumbai on November 26, 2008, specifically teaching them Hindi and crucial details of Mumbai’s topography to help them blend in.
Ansari filed an application in a special court in Mumbai seeking certain documents to substantiate his claim that he was arrested in Saudi Arabia and then deported to India. The court granted his request in 2018.
How Ansari was captured and the trial that followed
The Special Cell of the Delhi Police claimed that Ansari, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative, was nabbed from outside the airport in the national capital. In 2018, the court ordered the authorities to provide the documents requested by Ansari, prompting them to approach the Bombay High Court seeking a stay. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, argued for setting aside the trial court’s order, saying it was “wrong in law”.
The High Court on Monday granted the Centre’s petition, paving the way for the trial to resume. The attacks, carried out by ten heavily armed Pakistani terrorists who entered the financial capital from the Arabian Sea on the night of November 26, 2008, left 166 dead, including foreigners.
Investigators say Ansari played a key role as a manipulator of the terrorists. The only terrorist caught alive, Ajmal Kasab, was convicted and sentenced to death by a special court in 2010 and was hanged in Pune’s Yerwada jail in November 2012.
Ansari faces a string of terror charges from the Delhi Police, the National Investigation Agency, police forces from Maharashtra, Bangalore and Gujarat.
Links to the 2006 Aurangabad arms smuggling case
In 2016, Ansari was also among the seven convicts sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court under the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) in the Aurangabad arms shipment case of 2006. He managed to give a slip to the police and went to Malegaon and a few days later fled to Bangladesh from where he fled to Pakistan.
Ansari’s name resurfaced as the man whose voice was recorded in the Karachi control room giving instructions to the ten terrorists carrying out the 26/11 terror attack. In 2012, agencies narrowed down his location to Saudi Arabia and confirmed it through DNA samples taken from his Beed-based family.
He was deported to India from Saudi Arabia in June 2012. During interrogation, Ansari spoke about his association with various Lashker commanders and his meetings with the terrorist organization’s founder Hafeez Saeed and their plans to recruit through cyberspace.
