Mumbai: The move of Pakistani-American
David Headley, charged with conspiracy in the Mumbai terror
attacks, to plead guilty before a US court to bargain for a
lighter sentence, will not effect the 26/11 trial here,
special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam has said.
Forty nine-year-old Headley, an LeT operative arrested
by FBI last October, has moved the plea bargain at a court in
Chicago which is likely to come up for hearing tonight.
Nikam said it was not yet clear whether Headley would
plead guilty to all the charges or only to some of the charges
but this, in any case, would not affect the 26/11 case in the
Mumbai court as the trial has already reached its fag end.
"However, if Headley admits guilt in the 26/11
conspiracy, then it would vindicate our stand that attackers
came from Pakistan and that before the terror attacks, LeT had
conducted recce of Mumbai targets through different modules
and ways," Nikam said.
According to him, key accused Ajmal Kasab had stated
in his confession before a magistrate that the attackers were
shown CDs of Mumbai targets in a training camp in Pakistan.
Thus LeT had conducted recce of targets through different
modules, Nikam said.
Headley faces six counts of conspiracy involving
bombing public places in India, murdering and maiming persons
in India and providing material support to foreign terrorist
plots and LeT; and six counts of aiding and abetting the
murder of US citizens in India.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, March 18, 2010, 20:26