Probe validated: Maria

Additional DGP ATS Rakesh Maria said the Supreme Courts verdict was a validation of the Mumbai polices investigation. No part of the evidence we put up has been rejected. Some death sentences have been commuted to life because of a variety of other factors such as age,health and time already spent in prison, he said.

When Maria cracked the case,he was posted as DCP Traffic. There were no mobile phones at the time,and computers had just made their way into the Mumbai police. The case was basically built on groundwork. At that time,most of the accused were illiterate: hawkers,mechanics,workers at tailor shops,small dealers of charas and ganja. Now you have indoctrinated educated youth taking part in terror attacks. A terrorist today is intelligent. He has studied chargesheets and the ways in which the police today detect cases and prosecute accused. Today detection has become a much more difficult task, he said.

If I have any regrets,it is that we missed arresting Abu Salem by hours. At the time,nobody had heard of him8230; had we arrested him,the history of the underworld would have changed.