Sunday, September 11 2005 20:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: A day after Pakistan's state owned TV broadcast a purported statement of Sarabjeet Singh confessing that he had carried out bomb blasts in 1990, his lawyer today (Sept 11, 2005) said he was not in the know of existence of such a recording and it was not part of the court record.

Raha Abdul Hamid said there was nothing new in the PTV broadcast and it would have no effect on the case. Sarabjit, who Pakistan claims is Manjit Singh, has been been condemned to death for his alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan.

Referring to the tape, he said, "I don't know where it has come from or how it has come."

"This confession on video or audio, to my knowledge has not been produced before court at any time of trial nor is it part of record, nor it can be presumed that it is a statement," he said.

"Legally the statement is not on record nor is it on file of the case," Hamid said.

He said the purported statement was on the same lines as Sarabjeet's confession made before the area magistrate as available in court records.

He, however, refused to comment on the timing of the broadcast by the state-run television and said that the main argument of the defence was that Sarabjeet's confessional statement was made under duress and not an independent statement.

In the broadcast, which could have been recorded earlier, Sarabjit admitted that he was a RAW agent and was involved in five blasts.