Can’t give Pak foam found with 26/11 bombs: police

The foam was used to pack the three bombs the Lashkar men planted in the city but which didn’t explode. The same material was also found on MV Kuber,the boat used by the terrorists to reach Mumbai. Police sources said the foam was part of material evidence that had become the property of the court trying the case and could not be given to Pakistan. This,they said,had been conveyed to the Union Home Ministry,through which the request had been routed.

Instead,the Mumbai Police Crime Branch has suggested,Pakistani investigators should invoke a letter rogatory from the concerned court in their country and seek the evidence directly from the Mumbai court. A letter rogatory is a formal request from a court to a foreign court for judicial assistance.

Sources pointed out that under Section 189 of Pakistan’s Criminal Procedure Code pertaining to “power to direct copies of depositions and exhibits to be received in evidence”,a provincial government can seek evidence collected in an offence committed by a Pakistani national outside the limits of Pakistani territory for investigating the offence as if it was committed on Pakistani soil.

However,since Pakistan and India do not share an extradition treaty,Mumbai Police cannot directly share such evidence with Islamabad. Extradition treaties include provisions for sharing evidence,the sources said.

The information sought by Pakistan included the statement under Section 161 of CrPC of the magistrate who recorded the confession of arrested terrorist Ajmal Kasab,the testimony under Section 161 of the expert who forensicall tested the GPS device; expert testimony to establish that the terrorists were in touch with handlers in Pakistan; and English translations of the seizure memos of the Yamaha engine and the GPS instrument.