Kasab’s lawyer Kazmi sacked by Special Court

MUMBAI - S.G. Abbas Kazmi, the lawyer for 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, was sacked by Special Judge M.L. Tahaliyani Monday. The sudden move comes three days after Kazmi submitted an unconditional apology for “lying”.

Special Judge Tahaliyani, who is presiding over the trial, ordered that the case would now be handled by Kazmi’s assistant — lawyer K.P. Pawar, also a state appointee in the most high-profile legal trial in the country.

Kazmi had been appointed by the state to represent Pakistani national Kasab, the sole terrorist caught alive in the attack.

Kazmi had last week been accused of telling a “lie” in the Special Court, prompting the judge to reprimand him sternly for his wayward behaviour with a threat to remove him.

However, last Friday, he tendered an unconditional apology before the Special Court and was allowed to continue.

The issue arose last week after Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam expressed his intention to file an affidavit seeking permission to examine another 340 formal witnesses in the terror attacks trial. These would be in addition to the 271 witnesses examined by Nikam in the last eight months of trial.

When Kazmi claimed he was not informed of this development, Nikam pointed out that not only had he expressed his intention to examine the formal witnesses through affidavit right at the early stages of the trial in May, but on Nov 17 (2009), had even sent all the copies of the 340 affidavits to the defence lawyer.