09 July 2005 :

the following are transcripts of an interview with Anirban Roy, lawyer for Aftab Ansar and six others condemned to death on April 27 for the attack on Calcutta’s American Centre on January 22, 2002. “Are you satisfied with the way the trial was conducted?
I am definitely not satisfied with the way the case has been handled. The judgment, which was announced does not reflect the evidences that had come up during the trial. In the court of law, it does not matter who is before the court as an accused. What matters is the evidence.
Aftab Ansari was asked 925 questions in only five hours. Is this practically possible? If Ansari had called up senior police officer Rajeev Kumar and a media house to claim responsibility for the attack on the American Center, why did the investigating officer not record their statements? Do you feel that the death penalty awarded to Aftab is too harsh a judgment?
Yes, the judgment was too harsh for all of them. As defence counsel, I strongly feel that the court is all set to hang a group of people, who are in no way involved in the case. They all should have been let off because what has come on record did not match with the results of the investigation. What makes you feel that the judgment did not match with the investigations?
It is clear that the judgment did not match with the investigations. Two persons shot dead five policemen in front of American Center on the morning of January 22, 2002. But they did not attack the American Center.
One of the two killers has been shot dead in Hazaribag and the other is absconding. How could Aftab Ansari be involved in the case when he was in Dubai? He was brought to India, taken to Gujarat, then brought to Kolkata and implicated in the case of kidnapping of the owner of Khadim, Partha Pratim Roy Burman. Then he was caught in the USIS attack case.”