A Delhi court has allowed Tahawwur Hussain Rana, accused in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, to have three phone calls with his brother to discuss engaging a private counsel. His judicial custody has been extended until September 8.
Senior US administration sources and law enforcement officials have told rediff.com that it was President Barack Obama's "personal interest" in the David Coleman Headley case that led to the speedy indictment of the Chicago-based Pakistan American and also the dispatching of a team to New Delhi to brief India sleuths.
Ambiguous replies about his travels abroad aroused the suspicions of airport officials and led to the arrest of Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative, David Headley, charged with criminal conspiracy in the Mumbai terror attacks.
"If there are other offences, which are not covered under the plea agreement, then of course extradition is still possible," Home Secretary G K Pillai said when asked about chances of India being able to get Headley's extradition.
A Delhi court extended the judicial custody of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, until August 13. The order was passed after Rana was produced via video conference. Rana is associated with David Coleman Headley. NIA has filed a supplementary chargesheet against Rana.
America's Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday strongly refuted reports that Pakistani-origin US national David Coleman Headley, charged with criminal conspiring in the 26/11 terror attacks, was its agent at any point of time.
Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, accused of plotting the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and conspiring to target a Danish newspaper, pleaded guilty on Thursday before a United States court. Headley, 49, who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's joint terrorism task force on October 3, 2009, told US District Judge Harry Leinenweber that he wanted to change his plea to guilty, in an apparent bid to get a lighter sentence.
In a volte-face, Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, accused of plotting the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and conspiring to target a Danish newspaper, pleaded guilty on Thursday before a US court in Chicago.
The US and Indian authorities are holding discussions on providing New Delhi access to Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley who has confessed to his role in the Mumbai terror attacks and agreed to be interrogated by foreign agencies.
Pakistani-American LeT operative David Coleman Headley on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to the 12 counts filed against him in the superseding indictment returned on January 14, including charges he conspired in plotting the terror attacks in Mumbai and a Danish newspaper.
A recent ProPublica investigation termed Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative and 26/11 accused David Coleman Headley as a double agent working for both the American Central Intelligence Agency and the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence.
Infamous 26/11 reconnaissance operative David Coleman Headley will be questioned again between March 22 and 25.
Sources said David Headley revealed that three ISI officers -- Major Haroon, Major Sameer Ali and Major Iqbal -- were associated with the 26/11 terror plot.
Suspected Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist David Coleman Headley was charged in a Chicago court with criminal conspiracy in the Mumbai terror attacks that killed about 180 people, including many foreigners.
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's Public Relations Officer Danyal Gilani has refuted media reports suggesting that the prime minister knew Lashkar terror suspect David Coleman Headley.
David Coleman Headley, co-accused in the Mumbai terror attacks, lied to the law enforcement agencies and implicated Tawahhur Hussain Rana in the plot in a bid to save his life, defence attorneys said on Wednesday.
Mumbai attacks co-accused David Coleman Headley has testified that he received espionage training against India from Pakistan's spy agency Inter Services Intelligence.
US officials have agreed to take "suitable steps" in giving India a direct access to Headley, a statement released by the Indian Embassy in Washington said on Wednesday.
Headley also said that LeT boss Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind behind the November 2008 attack that killed 166 persons, motivated him for carrying out a 'jihad'. Saeed told him that the satisfaction of one second of 'jihad' is equal to "100 years of worship."
The alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Coleman Headley, arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for conspiring to carry out terror attacks in India, had stayed in a hotel in south Mumbai during his visit to the city, police said in Mumbai on Monday.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley, who has pleaded guilty to charges of his involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks, would testify against his Pakistani handlers Illyas Kashmiri and Sajid Mir, a United States attorney has said.
Mumbai attack co-accused David Coleman Headley on Wednesday testified he had conducted a surveillance of the German Bakery in Pune and identified Chabad houses in Delhi, Pushkar and Pune as potential bombing targets.
The US administration had informed the Indian government before it finalized a deal with David Coleman Headley to change his plea to guilty, sources said.
He was sent to judicial custody on May 9 and lodged in Tihar jail after his custodial interrogation by the NIA.
Tahawwur Rana, the 26/11 co-accused, did not congratulate co-conspirator David Coleman Headley, unlike several others, on the success of the Mumbai terror attacks, attorney of the Pakistani-Canadian said during the trial.
Unless one is naive beyond redemption, it was clear from the beginning that the Obama Administration and its FBI were trying frantically to prevent the truth regarding Headley from coming out, writed B Raman.
According to these documents, unsealed after Chicago Tribune petitioned before the court, Major Iqbal, said to be an ISI officer, also gave him Indian currency notes for his operation in India.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative and 26/11 attacks accused David Coleman Headley has proven to the visiting Indian investigating team that he was a rogue agent and has immense experience in dodging interrogation.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday filed fresh charges against suspected Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley, who was arrested in Chicago in October for plotting terror attacks in India.Headley has been charged with conducting surveillance of several targets in Mumbai for over two years before the terror attack on the city on November 26, 2008, that killed over 170 people, federal law enforcement officials announced today.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Tuesday expressed happiness over media reports that Indian investigating agencies would get direct access to David Coleman Headley, the man charged with scouting targets for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The Indian establishment may get a leverage while talking to American officials on bilateral efforts of counter-terrorism while the media splashes scary details about what Headley did in India, points out Sheela Bhatt
Pakistani-origin American national David Coleman Headley, a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative charged with criminal conspiracy in the 26/11 terror attacks, now appears to have turned into an informant to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to avoid death penalty.
The Delhi police on Sunday conducted searches in cyber cafes and hotels in central Delhi's Paharganj area where suspected Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley stayed during his three-day trip here in March this year.
Pakistan has handed over another dossier on Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley to India seeking more information about his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik met Interior Minister Rehman Malik in Islamabad, briefing him over the latest development concerning the issue.Headley, an American citizen of Pakistani origin, was arrested by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in October 2009.
A S Dulat, former Indian spy chief, speak about the implications of the Devid Headley case in an in-depth interview.
There has been a huge cover-up of the LeT iceberg in India that helped David Headley and Tahawwur Rana plan the 26/11 terror strike, says B Raman
India on Wednesday requested the United States to provide it access to the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks accused David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, visiting External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said.
Indian investigators, who conducted a detailed probe into the David Headley link to the Mumbai 26/11 case, would wait before they can file a charge-sheet against the man who pleaded guilty before an American court.
The papers on the basis of which terror suspects David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana were issued visas by the Indian Consulate in Chicago may have gone mysteriously missing and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said she has asked for a factual report from the diplomatic mission.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist has expressed serious concern over Indian investigating agencies not being allowed to interrogate Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley and sought to know what steps the government is taking into the matter.
