Key 26/11 witness Nuruddin Shaikh goes missing - 28.08.2009

From Zee news Bureau :
Mumbai: A key witness who deposed against Indian nationals Faheem and Sabauddin in the 26/11 case has gone missing, the prosecution told the special court on Friday.

Nuruddin Mehboob Shaikh had yesterday, as a prosecution witness, highlighted the role of Sabahuddin and Ansari in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks conspiracy.

The court had called the witness today for cross-examination at 11 AM but he failed to turn up.

Special public prosecutor Ujjawal Nikam told the court that crime branch officials had gone to the residence of the witness to fetch him but his wife had said that Shaikh had left home early morning, saying that he has to go to the court.

"This is a serious matter," Judge M L Tahaliyani observed and said he would decide later on what steps the court should take in the matter.

Nikam also said that the identity of the witness had been kept secret earlier and was disclosed to the defence lawyer only yesterday for cross-examination.



Faheem and Sabauddin, both Indian nationals, are facing trial along with Pakistani national Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab.

The police have launched a massive manhunt to trace the missing man.

Yesterday, Shaikh, a Mumbai driver, had claimed to have known Ansari since the past 30 years since both were residents of the same locality in Mumbai. He said that he had also visited Ansari’s room in Nepal and hence was witness to many an incriminating episode there.

In his testimony, Shaikh said that while on a visit to Nepal in January 2008, he had a chance meeting with Ansari in Kathmandu. Ansari invited him to his guesthouse on New Road for a chat. Around 8.30 pm, Sabahuddin came to the room and asked Ansari, “Did you do the work assigned by Lakhvi?”

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi is a key Lashkar-e-Toiba commander and features high on India’s most wanted list. His name has featured prominently post 26/11 as one the main handler of the Mumbai attackers, someone who saw them off in Karachi.

Interpol has also issued a Red Corner Notice against him.

Shaikh, told the prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam that Faheem then produced some papers and gave them to Sabauddin, but they slipped out of his hand and lay scattered on the floor.

The witness said he saw hand-drawn maps of some locations of Mumbai lying on the floor and asked Faheem since when he was engaged in the business of making maps.

Sabauddin intervened to say that some friends from Pakistan wanted to visit Mumbai and hence he had asked for the maps, the witness told prosecutor Nikam.

Shaikh said he got curious and asked Faheem why he had drawn the maps when printed ones were available in the market.

Faheem replied that the printed maps did not contain full information and hence he had to draw them.

The witness said that before departing from the guest house, Sabauddin had informed him that he was a resident of Madhubani in Bihar. Thereafter Shaikh said he too left the guest house and went to his hotel where he stayed.

"The next day, I met Sabauddin in the bazaar and enquired about Faheem. I was told that Faheem had gone for some work and would not be immediately available," the witness said during examination by Nikam.

Shaikh identified Faheem and Sabauddin in the court and even the maps he had seen in their possession in Nepal.

"These are the same maps I had seen with them in Nepal," he said.

Immediately after the examination of witness, Faheem got up to say that the witness was not known to him since childhood and that he had never met him before. Courtesy by Zee News.com