Mumbai blasts: Prosecution fails to produce CDRs related to LeT's Azam Cheema

Mumbai: Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba's (LeT) Azam Cheema alias Babaji, who was the terror outfit’s intelligence chief and an operative of the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), was shown as the No. 1 wanted accused in the July 11, 2005 Mumbai train serial bombing case. However, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has failed to prove the link.

Cheema, who was mostly based in Bahawalpur in the Punjab Province of Pakistan, died on February 28, 2024, aged around 70.

In the verdict on 7/11 case, the division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice Anil Kilor and Justice Shyam Chandak, which had acquitted all the 12 accused, asked why Call Detail Records (CDRs) were not provided.

“We have already seen that from the very beginning, the prosecution’s case was that the accused were in contact with the key conspirator Azam Cheema and members of the terrorist organisation LeT. However, despite this assertion, the prosecution failed to place the CDRs on the record. When questioned on this omission, the prosecution candidly stated that it was not relying on the CDR, and therefore, did not bring it on record,” the bench noted in the order, which questions the ATS investigations.

In other observations, the judges noted: “It is pertinent to note that the prosecution had sought the police custody remand of the accused on the ground, inter alia, that the accused were in contact with Pakistanis, Azam Cheema and his associates. Yet, even after the defence produced the CDR, the prosecution failed to establish any nexus between the accused and Pakistani nationals, including Azam Cheema and his associates.”

About the CDRs of the accused persons in the case, the court noted: “The prosecution could have easily established the location and movement of the accused at the aforementioned relevant places and times through the CDRs. Instead, the CDRs were destroyed. This act raises serious doubts over the integrity of the investigation conducted by the investigating agency and amounts to a grave violation of the right to a fair trial.”

Cheema was the intelligence chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba. He was considered close to LeT founder Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, the chief of operations of the LeT. Besides 7/11 train blasts, he had also played a role in the 26/11 fidayeen attacks in Mumbai. From 2008, till his death, he was LeT operations advisor.