26/11 attacks: Cops seek MHA help to serve order against Hafiz Saeed, 5 others for trial in absentia

MUMBAI: The Mumbai Police have approached the Union Home Ministry to serve the court proclamation orders via Interpol against six absconding accused, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founders Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, setting the stage to try them in absentia for their role in the 26/11 terror attacks.

The police, represented by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, submitted on Friday an interim report on the proclamation order issued in July this year against the absconding accused for initiating the process for trial in absentia.

“We have written to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for taking necessary steps in serving the proclamation order, through Interpol, against the accused residing in Pakistan,” Nikam told the special court hearing terror cases.

“On August 3, the MHA had acknowledged our request, and sought time for filing a status of the same,” he said.

Section 356 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, mandates full criminal trials in absentia for proclaimed offenders, who have absconded to evade trial and where there is no immediate prospect of arrest.

The court conducting trial in the 26/11 attacks case had issued the proclamation orders against Saeed, Lakhvi and other absconding accused Sajid Mir, Abu Alqama, Asim alias Abu Qahafa, and Major Abdur Rehman Pasha, all Pakistani nationals.

The role of these men in the attack was mentioned by terrorist Ajmal Kasab and accused turned approver David Headley.

Kasab was the lone surviving Pakistani terrorist captured alive during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in November 2008. Convicted of mass murder and waging war against India, he was sentenced to death and hanged at Yerwada Central Jail in Pune on November 21, 2012.

A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking people at iconic and vital locations of Mumbai.