New Delhi: India may allow cross examination of witnesses by a Pakistani judicial commission set up for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Home Secretary RK Singh said New Delhi may consider such a request from Islamabad as it wanted conviction of those who were involved in 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai and are now in Pakistan.
"We had requested our High Commissioner in Pakistan to approach the government there and ask them how they want to proceed. If they send us a communication, we will look at that communication.
"Once we get to know as to how they want to proceed, we will consult our legal team what is feasible and what is not. We want these people to brought to justice," he told reporters here.
Singh's comments came in the wake of a report from Islamabad that Pakistan government has informed India that evidence provided by New Delhi in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks case is not admissible in a Pakistani court as defence lawyers were not allowed to cross-examine Indian officials when the commission had visited Mumbai.
"So far, we have not received any communication from Pakistan," he said.
Asked about the Pakistani court's contention that the information gathered by the Pakistani commission in India had no evidential value, Singh said Indian legal experts conveyed to the government that whatever evidence the commission had collected has evidential value because the statements were recorded by the Magistrate.
"The Magistrate recorded the statements and these were examined by the Pakistani commission. Those statements were true. But the (Pakistani) court has taken a view. We will have to see," the Home Secretary said.
Sources said a section within the government has been in favour of giving the judicial commission the right to cross examine witnesses to ensure that the statements were treated as evidence by the anti-terror court in Pakistan.
The evidence provided by Indian authorities include the confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist of 26/11, a CD with intercepts of conversations between the attackers in Mumbai and their handlers in Pakistan, autopsy and medical reports of the dead and injured and the statements of four Indian officials.
The Pakistani judicial commission had interviewed four Indian officials, including the Magistrate who recorded the statement of Kasab and two doctors who conducted the autopsy of nine slain terrorists, during the visit to Mumbai.
However, no cross-examination was allowed under an agreement between India and Pakistan.
Seven suspects, including Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, have been charged with planning, financing and executing the terror attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people in November 2008.
Their trial in Pakistan has been hit by delays and the judge has been changed five times.
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