26/11 TRIAL ‘Payment for VoIP came from Pak’

He was born in Palestine, holds a Jordanian passport, is a permanent resident of the US and is now in Canada to expand his internet telephony service business. On Tuesday, he deposed via video-conference in the 26/11 terror trial against Ajmal Kasab to point to yet another Pakistani link in the attack on Mumbai last year.

The businessman said a client, posing as an Indian wholesale reseller of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), via email took several accounts and paid for it from Pakistan in October 2008 and again just a day before the strike on Mumbai. Answering questions put forth by public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam and trial judge M L Tahaliyani, he informed how one Kharak Singh, who became his client, paid him “$ 250 by Moneygram from one Mohammad Ishfaq and later $ 229 by Western Union Money Transfer from Pakistan’’ before the attacks.


The owner of Callphonex said he had given the customer 15 PC-to-phone accounts, 10 common-client accounts and five Direct Inward Dialling Austrian phone numbers after first receiving the request on October 20, 2008. Late October and early November, the services were “tested’’ with a few calls, then there was a lull and “a lot of volume towards the end of November, starting 24-25’’, the witness—called by Nikam to establish that the 10 gunmen were in constant touch with their Pakistani handlers during the Mumbai mission—said.

The witness, who shared the call logs of telephonic conversation made from his service from Singh’s account, said he had doubts about Singh’s identity and account when the second payment also came from Pakistan. He got his last email from Singh on November 25. He emailed Singh on December 25, 2008, informing him about his intention to suspend his acount for nonuse and non-compliance with the agreement and not because of the dummy nature of the account. “I accepted the money from Pakistan in good faith thinking his relatives may be paying for it,’’ he said.

The FBI had swung into action and contacted the witness whose company was based in New Jersey, the US, even as the hostage situation was on in Mumbai. During cross-examination by Kasab’s lawyer, Abbas Kazmi, he admitted that he was questioned by the FBI, but never detained. He denied that he aided the terrorists or that he had fabricated any of the information, but said the caller IDs could be changed by the user of the service.