NEW DELHI, Oct 10: A team of Scotland Yard officers is expected to visit Mumbai to learn how the city’s Anti-Terrorist Squad and Crime Branch solved the case of July 11 train blasts in Mumbai, The Statesman newspaper said on Tuesday.
Mumbai police claim to have solved the crime in which a terror attack on packed commuter trains killed nearly 200 and injured another 800 during the evening rush hour.
However, the newspaper also confirmed that in a set-back to the prosecution in the case, seven of the accused persons on Monday retracted their confession before a special court. They said the confessions were taken under duress by the police.
The Scoland Yard would also be interested in the way the Mumbai Police “unraveled the conspiracy plotted with the financial and strategic help from Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence,” the Statesman said.
That the British police have conveyed their wish to visit Mumbai and interact with the anti-terrorist squad and the crime branch officers was confirmed by Maharashtra home minister R.R. Patil, it added.
The persons who have retracted their statements are Faizal Shaikh, Muzammil Shaikh, Tanvir Ahmed Ansari, Mohammed Kamal Ansari, Ethesham Siddiqui, Sohail Shaikh and Zamir Ahmed Ansari, the report said.
The retraction came 10 days after Mumbai Police claimed they had cracked the train blasts case.
Appearing before special judge Mr M.R. Bhatkar, the accused said police had obtained their signatures on blank papers and also they were not produced before a magistrate or deputy commissioner of police (DCP) for recording confessions, according to The Statesman.
It said under the provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), it was mandatory for police to produce the accused persons before a competent authority if they wished to give their confession. “The retraction of confessions by the accused persons came as a surprise to the prosecution,” legal sources said.
