Prosecution says letters sanctioning call interception during 26/11 attacks burnt in Mantralaya fire

Retired IAS officer Chitkala Zutshi, who was additional chief secretary during the 26/11 terror attacks, was being cross-examined

Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, during the ongoing cross-examination of retired IAS officer Chitkala Zutshi, who was additional chief secretary during the 26/11 terror attacks, told the TADA court that some documents, including those sanctioning the call interception during the 26/11 terror attacks, got burnt in the 2012 Mantralaya fire.

A major fire broke out at the Mantralaya in 2012. (HT FILE)

The defence advocate Abdul Wahab Khan cross-examined Zutshi, who was the sanctioning authority for the interception of calls that occurred between the terror suspects and their handlers during the 2008 attacks.

The court asked the prosecution to present the sanctioning letters, to which Nikam said some of those documents perished in the Mantralaya fire.

The defence also asked Zutshi about the fire and if the documents were destroyed to which she deposed, “I have not personally seen this file being destroyed in the fire. It is not true that there was no such file of sanction containing the documents existing at Mantralaya.”

Nikam said that the copies of these letters were burnt in the fire and that the original letters are already submitted before the court. However, Khan said both the original and the copies of the letters were destroyed in the fire.

Khan told HT, “These orders require to be reviewed under the Indian Telegraph Act.”

In this regard, during the cross-examination, Zutshi was also asked about the review committee. Zutshi submitted that she does not remember if she was on the review committee.