Wednesday October 14, 2015
The city civil and sessions court at Kala Ghoda saw high drama and chaos with the transportation and production of 119 Somali nationals, accused in three piracy cases, from Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai to court room number 42. They were accompanied by 180 armed police personnel and escorted in 10 vans.
Brought into the inadequately sized courtroom in batches of 15 and 20, to mark their presence, many made loud and unruly demands to speak to the judge on issues ranging from their four-year, five-month incarceration, jail transfer, medical help and expediting trial. Speaking in Hindi and in tears, an accused told special public prosecutor Ranjeet Sangle, "Main samudri lootera nahin hoon. Main do saal se soya nahin hun aur maine apne maa, baap, bhai, behen se phone pe bhi baat nahin kiya hain. Bahut taqleef hoti hain saab." Sangle accepted 30 written applications filed by several of the accused. He assured the accused that the trial would reach its logical end at the earliest.
The court-appointed defence advocate Suraj Hulke was present too. Mohammed Mire, the only accused who spoke in English, read out his written application and said he wanted a new lawyer appointed only for him.
He said he was not one among the others and infact had been kidnapped while on his way to work in his village in Somalia. Seeking his early release, he said, "They took me to the hijacked ship and forced me to translate and converse to the ship crew." The prosecution, while describing his role, told the court that he was the one who had communicated with the Indian Navy and had threatened that one hostage would be killed per minute if they didn't stop firing.
Sangle told the court that the entire exercise of bringing the accused to the court was a waste of government money and manpower. Additional sessions judge Abhinandan Patangankar expressed his displeasure as their presence was not required on Tuesday. He said on future court dates, the accused were to be produced only through video conferencing unless explicitly asked to be brought before the court.