NIA concludes questioning of Headley

The team led by Loknath Bahera has headed back home after the Lashkar-e-Toiba(LeT) operative,who has confessed to his involvement in the Mumbai terror attack on November 26,2008 in which 166 persons were killed,anwsered its questions.

“Headley and his counsel agreed to the meetings (with the Indian investigators) and Headley answered the Indian investigators’ questions over the course of seven days of interviews. There were no restrictions on the questions posed by Indian investigators,” said a statement from the US Justice Department.

The statement also said that both India and the US have agreed not to disclose the contents of the interviews to protect the confidentiality of the investigations being conducted by the two countries.

The team arrived in the US on May 31 and their face-to-face interviews with Headley began on June 3. Headley is being being held in the federal lock-up Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Chicago.

US Ambassador Meera Shankar told PTI,”This (the questioning) took place over several days,beginning from June 3,2010,and the team is now returning to India on the conclusion of a useful visit.

“The Government of India attaches importance to this in investigating the full dimension of this heinous act of terrorist violence. The support and cooperation extended by the US authorities is appreciated and is in keeping with the commitment of the two countries to strengthen their cooperation in meeting the challenge of terrorism,” she said.

The Justice Deparatment said,”As part of the cooperation and partnership between the US and India in the fight against international terrorism,Indian law enforcement officials were provided direct access to interview David Coleman Headley.”

In a separate statement issued by the US Embassy in New Delhi,the US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer hailed the cooperation between the Indian team and their American counterparts throughout this process.

Roemer,who had said the Obama Administration is burning midnight oil to allow India access to Headley,is currently in Washington.

“The Headley interviews were historic in the nature of security cooperation. This strategic partnership is significant,substantive,and highly successful,” Roemer said,adding,”this strategic partnership is significant,substantive,and highly successful.”

Roemer said the Indian team had been granted direct access to David Headley,and had conducted a series of interviews with him related to terrorist activities in India.

“As I have mentioned previously,the US Government worked continuously at the highest levels to ensure that this access occurred and was constructive in advancing our already unprecedented cooperation and information sharing on counter-terrorism issues,” Roemer said.

“I am proud to confirm today that these efforts were successful,” Roemer said.

“As President Obama underscored last week during the US-India Strategic Dialogue,India and the US ‘are cooperating more closely than ever before against transnational threats,’ working to prevent terrorism that threatens both our countries and the world at large,” Roemer said.

Headley had pleaded guilty to conspiring in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks but struck a deal with US authorities in a plea bargain that saved him from the death penalty and extradition to India.

The plea agreement had however said Headley would cooperate with foreign authorities and can be interviewed by them only on US soil.

“Following discussions with US Attorney General,Eric Holder,the team from the NIA has visited the US for questioning Headley,” Shankar said.

The NIA team elicited information about his role in the Mumbai attacks,the wider conspiracy and all those involved in the carnage,sources had earlier said.

The interrogation of Headley,who is accused of having conducted recce for the Mumbai attacks,is expected to shed more light on the LeT’s plans regarding terror attacks in India.

The questioning revolved around the places he had visited in run up to the Mumbai terror attacks and the people he had been in touch with.

Headley’s interrogation by Indian sleuths was facilitated by his plea bargain with the US government under which he expressed readiness to be subjected to questioning by foreign investigators.

Meanwhile,sources close to the investigation have said that some of the reports appearing in the media about details of the access were not true.

The investigating team,which had been in Chicago for over a week and began questioning Headley about the 26/11 Mumbai attacks on June 3,is now headed back to India.

However,some reports,like Headley was not cooperating during the interrogation,surfaced in the media even as investigators were questioning the Pakistani-American held in the federal lock-up Metropolitan Correctional Centre.

Some of the reports on the National Investigating Agency team’s interrogation of Headley “appear to be based on speculation” and do not reflect what actually happened in the meetings,sources said.

Headley’s lawyer John Theis refused to comment on the details of the interrogation.

Terming the case as complex and complicated,Theis said,”My co-counsel and I will not be in a position to comment on these meetings”.