Blast accused prays for speedy trial

Mumbai, Dec 19 (UNI) One of the accused in the twin blast case of August 2003, today moved a miscellaneous application before the POTA court praying for 'Speedy Trial' under infraction of right to accused.

Counsel for the accused, Sushan Kunjuraman filed the application before POTA Judge S S Joshi on behalf of his client Ashrat Shafiq Ansari.

In his application, he contended that the prosecution wants to bring on record certain facts of the 54 witnesss in this case. He said during last three dates of hearing the prosecution had produced only three witnesses in the case.

He said considering the slow pace of examination of witnesses, the prosecution would take a period of about four months to complete the examination of the rest of the 51 witnesses thus wasting precious time of the honourable court and infraction of right to speedy trial of the accused persons.

He prayed the court to direct the prosecution to examine at least ten witnesses in a day and conclude the same within a week's time.

He is among the five persons facing trial in the two blasts - one at the Gateway of India and the other at Zaveri Bazar that had rocked the metropolis on August 25, 2003, killing 54 people and injuring 70 others.

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