7/11 accused says he trained in Pak

Mumbai: One of the 13 accused in the July 11 train serial blasts case has confessed that he agreed to undergo arms training in Pakistan.

"I collected approximately Rs 1.5 lakh to pay two Sudanese nationals, Jumma and Kamal, who promised they would give me a much larger amount in return," Shaikh Mohammed, an accused, who worked as a tailor in Pune, said.

According to Mohammed, he later learnt that the two had fled with his money to Dubai and therefore decided to take up prime conspirator Faisal Shaikh's offer to undergo training in Pakistan for which he was promised Rs 1 lakh.

The confessions of 11 accused were received by a special Court in sealed covers and were opened on Thursday.

Although all of them have retracted their statements, the confessions have evidential value and their validity would be decided by the Court during the trial.

Another accused Naved Rashid Khan confessed that he had met Faisal during his visits to dance bars and decided to join his activities since Faisal had a very "colourful" personality.

Khan also told the Anti Terror Squad he had spent a lot of money in dance bars due to which his brother had argued with him provoking him to leave the city for a brief period.

Faisal has told investigators that he was a regular patron of dance bars and often visited them with his friends.

"I used to visit a dance bar in Ghatkopar frequently and was very good friend of a bar girl there. We even went to each other's houses often," Faisal said.

Shaikh who states in his confession that he received constant funding from Azam Cheema, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) commander, said he was admonished by the latter for failure to send sufficient persons for training in Pakistan.