Ajmal Kasab

Mumbai, Oct. 26 (PTI): An “overstressed” police officer today admitted he had mixed up proof collected from the Taj hotel and Nariman House after the 26/11 attack.

Manesingh Prayagsingh Patil told the special court that articles recovered from the Taj were shown to have been found at Nariman House and vice versa. The labels pasted on the items, he said, got interchanged while preparing the panchnama — a list of evidence and findings at a crime scene.

“I may have committed a mistake as I was over-stressed...I did not go home for four days after the terror attack and was on duty all 24 hours from November 26,” said Patil, who was posted at Colaba police station, near the two sites.

The mix-up, which could delay the trial, means that many of the AK-47 rifles, magazines, bullets, global positioning system (GPS) devices, mobiles and live cartridges recovered from the two places could have been wrongly marked.

The inspector said he didn’t “remember” how many AK-47s had been found, prompting judge M.L. Tahaliyani to rap him for the lapse. “You are a senior officer, how do you say you do not remember.”

Patil also fumbled on other basic facts. He said he had drawn up six panchnamas in the presence of five independent witnesses, but couldn’t get right the age of one of the witnesses. Patil said Narain Shetty, the witness, “must have been in the age group of 35 to 40”. But he was left red-faced when Abbas Kazmi, Mohammad Ajmal Kasab’s lawyer, waved a copy of the panchnama that showed the age as 66.

Kasab is facing trial along with two Indians, Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, for the attacks that left 166 people dead.

Tomorrow, National Security Guard commando Lt Col R.K. Sharma will depose and tell the court how he had led his team to fight the terrorists at Hotel Oberoi, the third site targeted in the strike.

Sharma has been summoned despite prosecution’s objections that examining NSG commandos would reveal their anti-terror strategies and could compromise security.