Mumbai Police file case against terror ‘witness’

Mumbai, January 17:Mumbai Police’s crime branch has registered an offence against Colaba Fishermen Colony resident Anita R. Uddaiya for attempting to mislead investigators in the Nov 26 terror attacks, a senior official said here Friday.

Mumbai, January 17:Mumbai Police’s crime branch has registered an offence against Colaba Fishermen Colony resident Anita R. Uddaiya for attempting to mislead investigators in the Nov 26 terror attacks, a senior official said here Friday.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria told reporters that Uddaiya had been changing her statements about her alleged disappearance for three days.

He rubbished her claims that she had was taken to the US by investigators from that country last week.

Maria said that Uddaiya has not been listed as a witness as claimed by her to the media in the past few days.

“She has never been called to Arthur Road prison for the identification parade of Mohammed Ajmal Amir, alias Kasab, nor was she ever taken to the Sir J.J. Hospital to identify the bodies of the nine terrorists killed in the anti-terror operatons,” he said.

The Cuffe Parade police station lodged a complaint against Uddaiya and her daughter Seema under section 182 of the Indian Penal Code for misleading investigators. The mother-daughter duo, if found guilty, could face imprisonment of six months plus a fine.

Uddaiya (47) was reported missing by her family members last Sunday (Jan 11), sending the police in a tiizzy.

Suddenly, as mysteriously as she had disappeared, she resurfaced Wednesday morning at her home and said she had gone to visit her brother in Satara district.

However, Uddaiya Thursday made the sensational claim that she had actually been taken to the US by investigators from that country. At her home in Mahatma Phule Nagar in the fishermen’s colony, she also “confessed” she had told a lie about going to Satara.

She claimed that she had been alerted at least a fortnight ago by US investigators that she may be taken to the US for investigations since she had seen the group of 10 terrorists landing at the bay opposite Badhwar Park in Colaba Nov. 26.

The police, unable to fathom the reasons behind her strange behaviour, finally decided to lodge a case against her. Maria said that it is not known whether Uddaiya holds a passport, but this would come out in the investigations.

Over 170 people, including 26 foreigners, were killed and 300 others were injured in the Nov 26 Mumbai terror attacks at 13 different locations in the city.