11/7 witness declared hostile

MUMBAI: A special Mcoca court on Wednesday declared a witness in the 11/7 serial train blasts case "hostile". The 30-year-old witness is a cousin of one of the accused, Faisal Sheikh, who is allegedly the western India chief of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the blasts mastermind.
The prosecution's case was that the witness was a member of the banned Student's Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).He had earlier deposed that Sheikh and two more accused persons had gone to Pakistan to undergo terrorist training. He also submitted that the ones arrested could have carried out the blasts.
But on Wednesday, the witness said in court that he had not spoken the truth on the previous occasion. Who forced him to depose wrongly? He answered he could not name the police officers for fear of being implicated in a false case.
The witness further claimed that he had filed an affidavit soon after his statement was recorded before the magistrate. The court asked him to produce the copy of that affidavit.
The defence stated that the witness told the court that he was kept in a confinement for 20 days and tortured. Further he was told that if he did not make submissions according to the Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) he would have to face the consequences.