New Delhi: Concerned over reports that
Mumbai terror suspect David Headley may enter into a plea
bargain with prosecutors in Chicago, Indian security
establishment feels that it would lend credence to suspicions
that he may have been working for the Americans.
Indian officials, who have been watching the progress in
the case at Chicago in US, is somewhat worried about reports
emanating from there today that Pakistani-American Headley
would be pleading guilty in an attempt to get lighter
sentence.
Headley, who has been charged with hatching conspiracy
in the 2008 Mumbai attacks by the FBI, has sought plea bargain
under American laws, a senior government official said.
The laws there provide for agreement between federal
prosecutors and individuals under criminal investigation which
permit them to give the government information about crimes
with some assurances that they will be protected against
prosecution.
The official said any lenient sentence now will
"confirm" that Headley, who was arrested on October three last
for his links with Lashker-e-Taiba, was an American agent.
A lenient sentence is a matter of concern for India and
may give credence to the suspicion that he was an American
agent, the official said, adding if the sentence was something
like 100 years, then there was no problem.
India has been trying to get access to 49-year-old
Headley, who has been charged with conducting recee of
installations attacked by Lashker terrorists in 26/11 in
Mumbai.
Headley had earlier pleaded not guilty to the 12-count
superseding indictment filed against him on January 14 but now
moved for a "change of plea" which will be heard by US
District Judge Harry Leinenweber tomorrow.
The American terror suspect had got away with a lesser
sentence after he was arrested in 1998 for smuggling heroin
into the US from Pakistan as he cooperated with the
investigation in the case.
He was sentenced to less than two years in prison and
thereafter went to Pakistan to conduct undercover surveillance
operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
-PTI
