More than seven years after it came to a standstill, the trial of 26/11 terror attack handler Abu Jundal is set to resume.
On Monday (November 3), the Bombay High Court quashed a 2018 order by a special court that had required authorities to hand over confidential arrest-related documents to the accused, a directive that had effectively frozen the proceedings since 2018.
Justice R.N. Laddha, delivering the verdict, held that the trial court had 'completely misdirected itself' by invoking Section 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to compel the production of documents unrelated to the trial’s merits.
“Section 91 does not empower the accused or the court to initiate a speculative inquiry into the place of arrest when such inquiry bears no rational nexus to adjudication,” the judge observed, as cited by The Hindu.
The order clears the way for the long-pending prosecution of Sayyad Zabiuddin Ansari, alias Abu Jundal, a key Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative accused of being among the masterminds behind the November 26, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
HC slams delay, stresses timely justice
The High Court expressed concern that the 2018 order had kept the case in limbo for years.
“The trial has remained stayed since 2018 due to the impugned order. In serious offences, a timely trial is essential to ensure justice and accountability,”
Justice Laddha said.
By allowing the petition filed by the Delhi Police, the Ministry of External Affairs, and others, the High Court rejected the trial court’s demand that they share travel-related documents and immigration papers with the accused.
What the government argued
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, told the court that Jundal was not a peripheral actor but a key conspirator.
“He provided strategic inputs, trained attackers, and maintained operational oversight via VoIP from Karachi,”
Mehta argued, according to The Hindu.
The Solicitor General said Jundal’s attempt to seek details of his arrest at this late stage was “procedurally untenable” and designed only to delay the trial.
He added that the requested passports, flight manifests, and immigration records were irrelevant to the case and would lead to a “roving and fishing inquiry.”
Who is Abu Jundal?
Zabiuddin Ansari, better known by his alias Abu Jundal, is believed to have been the Hindi-speaking handler who guided the 10 Pakistani gunmen during the 26/11 Mumbai siege.
Investigators say he trained the attackers, taught them Hindi and local mannerisms, and briefed them on Mumbai’s layout to help them blend in before the assault.
He faces multiple terror-related cases filed by the Delhi Police, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and state police units in Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka.
Arrest and earlier convictions
Ansari was arrested in June 2012 after being deported from Saudi Arabia, where Indian agencies had traced him through DNA samples from his family in Beed, Maharashtra.
He had earlier fled India following the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case, in which he was convicted in 2016 and sentenced to life imprisonment under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
His voice was among those intercepted in the Karachi-based control room directing the 26/11 attackers, including Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive and later executed in 2012.
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