Kasab charged with war against the country

New Delhi: The Mumbai Police on Wednesday filed a 11,280-page chargesheet in the 26/11 terror attacks case before metropolitan magistrate MJ Mirza.

Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam along with officers from the Mumbai crime branch were present in the court room.

Nikam said that he did not have the details of the chargesheet but credited the investigators for doing a good job.

"It is a bulky chargesheet. Crime branch has done a good work during the investigation. I don't know the minute details of the investigation. IO (investigating officer) knows very well about it. But it is a mammoth chargesheet," said Nikam, who was the prosecutor in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blast case.

The chargesheet is against Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist who was caught during the Mumbai terror attack, and 19 others.

Besides Kasab, the only terrorist nabbed alive, the chargesheet names at least 19 others, including some Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) activists like Fahim Ansari and Salauddin Mohammed, for their role in the Mumbai carnage. However, Kasab was not produced in court.

The chargesheet doesn't include the confessional statement of Kasab on the Mumbai terror attacks of November 26-29 since the police have not yet got it from the court, Joint Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria was quoted by IANS as saying.

The charges also included accounts from 150 witnesses and closed circuit television footage that shows Kasab and his accomplice walking into Mumbai's crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji train station and spraying it with bullets, Mumbai police's main investigator Rakesh Maria had said earlier.

According to sources, the chargesheet has been written in seven languages including Urdu which will also be handed over to Kasab.

Kasab will reportedly be tried under India's toughest anti-crime law.

Presently in police custody, Kasab is facing charges in at least 12 different cases. He is lodged in the high security precincts of the Arthur Road Jail in south-central Mumbai.

The chargesheet provides evidence of the involvement of elements from Pakistan in the Mumbai terror attacks.

Legal experts say that once the chargesheet is filed, the trial can commence. However, there is no particular time-frame for the trial to commence against the accused.