Abu Jundal says he was forced to confess
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Zabiuddin Ansari, alias Abu Jundal, retracted his oral confession in the 26/11 terror attacks case on Friday before the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court. Jundal also told the court that his name is Zabiuddin Ansari and not Jundal.
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Zabiuddin Ansari, alias Abu Jundal, retracted his oral confession in the 26/11 terror attacks case on Friday before the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court. Jundal also told the court that his name is Zabiuddin Ansari and not Jundal.
Jundal, an accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and several other cases including the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case, retracted it on the grounds that his confession was obtained under duress and that he was falsely implicated in the case.
Jundal, who was produced before special judge MS Modak through video conferencing, in connection with the Aurangabad arms haul case, claimed that the signature on the confession statement was taken forcibly. Jundal is presently at Delhi’s Tihar jail.
“He told the judge that his name is not Jundal and that it is Zabiuddin Ansari. He also requested the judge not to refer to him as Jundal,” said his lawyer Ejaz Naqvi.
When told that he would be required to be present before the court in Mumbai while framing of charges in the Aurangabad arms haul case, Jundal said that he is scared to come to the city because he fears that he would be booked in false case by the crime branch.
As per the charge sheet in the arms haul case, on May 8, 2006, a Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad team had chased a Tata Sumo and an Indica on Chandwad-Manmad highway near Aurangabad and arrested three terror suspects and seized 30 kg of RDX, 10 AK-47 assault rifles and 3,200 bullets. It is stated that Jundal was behind the wheel and managed to give police the slip. In May 2006, according to the police, he escaped to Bangladesh from where he went to Pakistan on a fake passport obtained with the help of LeT operatives.