‘Centre sitting on request to Italy court for 26/11 info’

“According to procedure,the police approach a local court and obtain an LR,” the officer explained. “However,after the LR is issued,a final call is taken by the Ministry of Home Affairs on whether to actually send the LR to the foreign court.”

An LR,essentially a request from one court to another,is the only official route through which local investigators can probe leads in a foreign country and obtain information that can then be put up as evidence before a court.

On November 21 last year,Italy’s DIGOS,the central anti-terrorism cell of that country’s police,arrested Mohammed Yaqub Janijua (61) and his son Aamer (32) from the northern Italian town of Brescia on charges of aiding and abetting the 26/11 attack. The Italian Guardia di Finanza,equivalent of the Indian Customs,was also involved in the operation.

On November 27,Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate V V Bhambarde issued an LR seeking information from an Italian court on the case against the father-son duo after the Mumbai Police approached the court.

Janijua and Aamer allegedly made money transfers that paid for the activation of the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) account with New Jersey-based service provider Callphonex,which was used by the 26/11 terrorists and their Pakistan-based handlers to communicate with each other.

The Italian police had acted on the 26/11 dossiers that India provided to several western countries after the attack. According to information provided by India,a Pakistani national identified as Javed Iqbal transferred $229 through Madina Trading agency in Brescia for activation of the Callphonex account a day before the attack.

The DIGOS followed up on this information and found that Janijua and his son had stolen the identity of one Javed Iqbal to transfer the money.