The much awaited trial in the 26/11 terror attack case may not begin on Wednesday as the special court has to first decide a petition seeking to debar lawyer Anjali Waghmare from defending the lone surviving gunman, Mohammed Amir Ajmal Qasab, on grounds of "professional misconduct".
The much awaited trial in the 26/11 terror attack case may not begin on Wednesday as the special court has to first decide a petition seeking to debar lawyer Anjali Waghmare from defending the lone surviving gunman, Mohammed Amir Ajmal Qasab, on grounds of "professional misconduct".
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Waghmare, appointed by the court to defend Qasab, is mired in a controversy which seems to put her in a tight spot in the wake of allegations that she had first accepted brief of a witness in this case before deciding to defend Qasab.
He is a prime witness in the case and was seeking compensation from the government for injuries sustained in his neck during the attack.
According to Lam, Waghmare had sought instructions from this witness and even signed a Vakalatnama to help him seek compensation.
She had kept the court in dark about this development, Lam alleged. He contended that Waghmare cannot accept brief of accused Qasab if she had decided to appear for a witness in the same case.
DNA samples of Qasab and Ismail are different : Prosecutor
Strongly refuting claims of Pakistan, Special Public Prosecutor in 26/11 terror attack case Ujjwal Nikam on Tuesday said the DNA samples of lone surviving gunman Mohammed Amir Ajmal Qasab and slain terrorist Mohammed Ismail were 'totally different'.
Nikam was responding to reports in a section of media which quoted Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik saying at a press conference in Pakistan that the DNA samples of Qasab and Ismail, provided by India, had turned out to be the same.
"DNA is biological fingerprint of an individual and no two persons anywhere in the world can have the same DNA profile except in case of biological twins," Nikam said.
Qasab and Ismail are not twins and are also not biologically related to each other, he said.
In every human body there are 46 chromosomes in each cell... 23 are inherited from mother and the other 23 from father. Therefore no two individuals in any part of the world can have the same DNA pattern, the prosecutor pointed out.
The DNA samples of all the 10 accused (Qasab and others who were gunned down by armed forces), taken by experts, had given totally different DNA patterns, Nikam said.