All eyes set on Gulshan Kumar trial

mumbai: all eyes are set on the gulshan kumar murder trial, which would pick up momentum on august 8 when the prosecution examines its star witness and accused- turned-approver mohammed ali shaikh, who had earlier created a flutter in legal circles by seeking withdrawal of pardon. mohammed ali is all set to step into box after three days for a thorough examination-in-chief to be conducted by special public prosecutor ujjwal nikam.when the trial began early this year, mohammed ali's lawyer p a sebastian filed an application urging the court to treat his client as an accused and not as an approver. however, he withdrew his application after the court held that this issue could be decided at the appropriate stage when mohammed ali would be produced for examination as witness. if the approver toes the prosecution line and tenders evidence supporting the police case then he will be regarded as a key witness and his pardon would be subject to a clearance certificate issued by the public prosecutor in keeping with provisions of crpc, legal circles point out. in such an event, the approver may throw light on the conspiracy leading to the killing of the audio king. but if the approver does not support the prosecution, he will be declared as a hostile witness and cross-examined by the prosecutor who will attempt to put the police case on its track. the approver had raised a controversy in the past by filing a petition in mumbai high court urging for recall of pardon. he blamed the police for forcing him to become an approver and alleged that he was a victim of police excesses. mohammed ali also denied the letter written by him expressing his desire to become an approver and said it was not in his handwriting. the court, however, turned down his plea saying that the pardon once given could not be revoked. the trial had been delayed by four years because the indian government had filed an extradition case in uk against music composer and prime accused nadeem akhtar saifee. the house of lords in uk recently discharged nadeem on the ground that the evidence against him was "suspect" because the approver had disowned his version. the prosecution's case is that gulshan kumar was gunned down on august 12, 1997, due to business rivalry. nadeem and ramesh taurani, chairman of tips cassettes ltd, allegedly paid rs 25 lakh contract amount to the conspirators. abu salem, right hand man of underworld don dawood ibrahim had called a conspiracy meeting in dubai where the contract was accepted by the killers, the prosecution alleged. the alleged killers were mohammed rauf raja, anil sharma and abdul rauf daud merchant. anil sharma is reportedly absconding, while the other two are facing trial. besides them, 15 others have been charged with criminal conspiracy to kill gulshan kumar. they are in custody and are produced before the sessions court regularly. the accused, including taurani, have pleaded not guilty to the charges framed against them on april 30.