US man deposes in 26/11 case, has no details

The US citizen who owned the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) domain in New Jersey which the 26/11 gunmen allegedly used to communicate with their Pakistani handlers deposed on Monday.

However, the deposition was deferred till Tuesday as the witness failed to get his records to the video-conferencing room (VCF).

The witness (name withheld as per court order), who is the owner of International Connection Services (ICS) of which Callphonex is the domain name, provides VoIP services all over the world. The witness was vacationing in Canada when he was summoned to depose before the court in Mumbai. The VCF was set up in a hotel at Toronto where he communicated with the special court in the city trying the 26/11 case. An FBI officer accompanied him in the VCF room.

When special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam asked him for the phone number which the customers use to contact anyone, the witness couldn’t recall all the digits. He also said that he didn’t have the records with him. The witness, however, promised to get the records in 24 hours.

Nikam said that the deposition of the witness is based on the records. As per the prosecution case, the Pakistani gunmen used the VoIP facility based in New Jersey to communicate with their handlers in Pakistan while the attack was underway.

Swearing-in objection
After the witness was sworn in, defence lawyer Abbas Kazmi raised an objection that the swearing-in ceremony should have included the words: In the name of Allah (the witness is a Muslim).

The court staff had told the witness to say: I solemnly affirm that whatsoever I shall state before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth but nothing but the truth. Additional sessions judge, ML Tahaliyani said, “Solemn affirmation can be taken in the name of any religion. We need not use the word God, Allah or even Bhagwan. We should not depart from practice.”