Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Sources in the government have revealed that the National Investigation Team (NIA) is gearing up to interrogate LeT operative David Coleman Headley who admitted to plotting Mumbai terror attack among other terror activities.
The decision on the team will be taken when Union Home Minister P Chidambaram returns from his UK visit, where he will meet the country’s security & intelligence officials. The trip is likely to be announced on March 26. The NIA team will go to US most likely in April.
An official said the NIA had also been asked by Chidambaram to initiate the process and file charges against Headley. The NIA team will be joined by a Home Ministry official. MHA is in the process of constituting a team
with the help of the Union Law Ministry under the terms of the
Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with the US, sources said.
"The team that will also include some home ministry officials is likely to visit the US soon after it is formed. We are also preparing a set of questions to interrogate Headley and will also start a judicial process soon," the official told IANS on condition of anonymity as the government wants the process to be conducted away from the media glare.
Headley Thursday entered into a plea bargain with prosecutors in the US; he will be spared the death sentence and extradition to India or Denmark, where he is also alleged to have schemed terror attacks.
Sources said the visit will be undertaken on mutually
accepted dates as teams from Pakistan and Denmark are also
likely to go to US to question Headley.
They said the team could go even before the National
Investigation Agency files a chargesheet against Headley or
after it.
They said the NIA may file a case against Headley under
the Passport Act for misrepresenting the facts by not
divulging his original name - Dawood Gilani.
The NIA has registered a case against Headley but has not formally charged him in a court or started a judicial process against him.
The development comes two days after Attorney General and head of the US Justice Department Eric Holder spoke with Chidambaram over the phone, assuring him that India will have early access to Headley to interrogate him, possibly in a pre-trial stage.
The US Department of Justice has reportedly asked India to be ready with its team. The Home Ministry has said it will be ready with the team within a day or two.
-Agencies' inputs
First Published: Monday, March 22, 2010, 20:42