NIA to file chargesheet against Headley soon

The National Investigation Agency will soon file a charge sheet against Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley, a mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

"NIA will file the charge sheet against Headley soon," Union Home Secretary R K Singh told mediapersons in New Delhi.

Later, a top NIA official said the agency was in an advanced stage of filing the charge sheet incorporating all the evidence against Headley, the Pakistani-American who had made multiple visits to India before and after the 26/11 attacks.

"Probably, we will file the charge sheet next month," the NIA official said.

Officials said that along with Headley, his accomplice and Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who had helped Headley conduct the recce for the terrorists to carry out the attack, could also be named in the charge sheet.

Headley has entered into a plea bargain with the American authorities while Rana has been convicted by a US court for his involvement in planning to carry out terror attack in Denmark.

NIA is also likely to name a few Pakistanis, including the handlers of the ten terrorists who carried out the attack in Mumbai, in the charge sheet it was planning to file.

Former Home Secretary G K Pillai had recently questioned the motive behind the US entering into the plea bargain with Headley.