26/11 chargesheet to be filed by Feb 25

The chargesheet in the 26/11 case which will be filed before February 25, is expected to be over 10,000 pages and will have the statements of nearly 200 eyewitnesses, according to sources in the Mumbai police.

The Mumbai police are giving finishing touches to the chargesheet and want to ensure that it is filed before February 25, since the 90-day period of Ajmal Kasab's remand ends that day. The Code of Criminal Procedure states that a chargehsheet should be filed in 90 days.

The chargesheet into the biggest ever terror attack on Indian soil is expected to be very similar in content to the dossier that was sent to Pakistan in January. The charghesheet will contain details of all the attacks that took place in Mumbai apart from how the conspiracy was hatched.

While Ajmal Kasab will be named as the prime accused in the case, the names of the conspirators too would be mentioned in the chargesheet, sources told rediff.com. The chargesheet will make a specific mention of how the entire attack was planned in Pakistan.

The chargesheet will find a mention of seven Pakistanis who were directly behind the attack. The names of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Javed Iqbal, Abu Hamza, Yusuf Muzzamil, Zarar Shah, Kaafa and Abu Qama will be mentioned in the chargesheet as conspirators. Apart from this the names of Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin the men who conducted and helped conduct a recee of Mumbai will be mentioned in the chargesheet. The accused persons will be charged under the provisions of the Customs Act, Indian Penal Code and the Cyber Crime Act.

The chargesheet will contain details of the CCTV footage obtained during the attacks and also the statements of nearly 200 eyewitnesses. In order to make the case much stronger, the Mumbai police will also include details provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the details pertaining to the Voice over Internet Protocol which was used  by the handlers in Pakistan at the time of the attack. Apart from this the statement of Kasab recorded before the Magistrate will also form part of the chargesheet.

Although Kasab had made a confessional statement providing all details, the Mumbai police sought to get him to confess before the magistrate on Wednesday and Saturday last to ensure that there was more legal sanctity attached to the confession.