7/11 accused uses RTI to pick holes in ATS theory.

Mumbai Mirror: Mumbai: Tuesday, May 07, 2013.

Ehtesham Siddique, a key accused in the July 11, 2006 train bombings case, on Monday used information acquired via the Right to Information Act to pick holes in the prosecution's claims.

First, he showed that an eyewitness, who claimed to have seen him at Churchgate station on the day of the bombings, may have been lying about his whereabouts at the time of the incident.

The eyewitness had said he had seen a man with a 'heavy bag' at Churchgate station on the day of the bombings.

The witness had said he was present at Chruchgate station after meeting one Baban Khambe at the ENT Hospital near Fort and got off at Dadar to meet one Lalit Waghela at the municipal employees co-operative bank.

But an RTI copy obtained by Siddique taken on record by the court on Monday showed that nobody by name Baban Khambe works at the hospital.

"Another RTI copy revealed that Waghela was on leave that day," said Advocate Sharif Shaikh.

Siddique's second point was that his confession was extracted after he was tortured. On June 28, 2008, he was shifted from the Arthur Road jail to the Kolhapur central prison. Siddique had claimed to have been beaten up brutally by Arthur Road jail authorities before he was transferred to Kolhapur.

"Instead of being treated, I was only given pain killers," Siddique told the court on Monday. "A medical check-up that is meant to be done as soon as I was transferred was done only 22 days later."

To prove his point, he submitted the medical report - again obtained via RTI - to the court. Besides bearing adate 22 days from the day he was interned at Kolhapur, the report also says that he had several fractures, mainly on his hands, and had injuries throughout his body.

The third piece of RTI-backed information Siddique used was to question the credibility of another important prosecution witness. The witness had deposed that co-accused Faisal's house in Bandra was used for terror activities and that Siddique was present at the time they bomb was assembled.

But Siddique claimed on Monday that this 'witness' was in his cell in 2006 and that he was beaten up by the police in the same lock-up.

"The witness claimed he was from Bareilly and holds a passport from the Bareilly Passport Office," said Sheikh. "But we had our doubts. And once again an RTI revealed that no such passport was ever issued in the name of that witness from Bareilly."