MHA awaits formal communication from Pak on sending Commission

New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) Treading cautiously over
Pakistan's proposal to send a commission to India to interview
the magistrate who recorded Mumbai attack convict Ajmal
Kasab's statement, the Indian Government on Thursday said it
will examine it once a formal communication is received.
India's Home Ministry, a government official said, would
respond to the Pakistani proposal after consulting legal
experts.
"We are awaiting a formal communication from
Pakistan," the official said.
The issue figured in the telephonic conversation
Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik had with India's Home
Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday.
Malik, who called Chidambaram, is understood to have
said that a Pakistani court has desired that, subject to the
consent of Indian authorities, the commission may visit India
to record the testimony of the magistrate who recorded the
confessional statement of Kasab and the investigating officer
in the Mumbai attacks case.
India, however, may seek clarification from Pakistan
on what exactly the Commission would want to do if it is
allowed access to Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R V
Sawant Waghule as also Investigating Officer Ramesh Mahale.
The Pakistani Interior Minister recently had said that
the trial of Lashkar-e-Toiba's Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six
other suspects in Mumbai attacks case in a Pakistani court was
"stuck" over the issue of Indian witnesses testifying via
video-conferencing as this was not allowed under Pakistani
laws.
The commission from Pakistani reportedly also intends
to study the post-mortem reports of victims of the terrorist
attacks. PTI ACB
EKA


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