With the National Investigation Agency registering a case, officials have begun a sprawling investigation into rail, air and phone records to track the trail in India of US national David Coleman Headley and his Canadian associate Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the two men arrested by the FBI last month for allegedly plotting terror strikes.

While preliminary investigations are expected to go on for at least six weeks, sources said there is evidence to show that Headley checked in at least twice in Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and Towers more than a year before it was targeted by the Lashkar’s attackers on 26/11.

And that once in 2008 Rana came to India using this name when he travelled extensively across the country — “from top to bottom on the map” — and visited several places in the North, South and West.

Headley is believed to have accompanied Rana on some of these trips. Investigators are exploring the possibility of them using these trips as “recce missions,” sources said, and their links, if any, to the 26/11 attacks.

Headley, alleged to have run a visa consultation firm from an office in A C Market in South Mumbai’s Tardeo area, is said to have stayed at the Taj twice in the first half of 2007, sources said.

Agency has already registered a case against Headley and Rana for allegedly plotting terror attacks in India.

Investigators have found out that of the seven Indian cities Headley visited between 2006-09, there are instances of him having flown into a city but not taking a flight out.

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