A sessions court in Mumbai on Wednesday allowed Mumbai police’s application and made Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayyeba operative David Coleman Headley an accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case.
Sessions judge G.A. Sanap, while accepting the application made by the police, posted the matter for further hearing on December 10 and also issued summons to Headley with direction that he should be produced before the court through video conferencing on the next date of hearing. In his order, Mr Sanap said that the summons should be issued to Headley through the United States District Court for North Eastern district of Illinois.
The Mumbai police, through special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, had moved an application before the court on October 8 saying that Headley (who is currently serving 35 years in an American prison for his role in the terror attacks) deserves to be tried by this (Mumbai) court together with 26/11 key plotter Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal as both of them are conspirators and abettors of the dastardly strikes.
The judge had asked Jundal’s defence lawyer to file his reply on the prosecution’s application seeking to make Headley an accused in the case and advocate Mehmood Pracha had opposed the application. Replying to the application, he had argued that the police had waited for all these years to make Headley an accused in the case and why had it suddenly realised that he should by tried by this court. In his oral arguments he had contended that the prosecution does not have any evidence against Jundal and hence they decided to make Headley an accused in this case so that his confession, give before the US court, could be used as an evidence against Jundal.
According to the police, the charges for which the US court has convicted Headley and the charges Mumbai police is pursuing against him are entirely different.
According to the police, Headley has entered into a plea agreement with the US in 2010 and thereby willingly and voluntarily agreed that he was part of the conspiracy and hence it is evident that he has committed the offences of conspiring with LeT for committing illegal acts in India.
Headley, reportedly, visited India five times between 2006 and 2008, and created maps and took video footage and scouted several targets for the attacks, including the Taj hotel, Oberoi hotel and Nariman House Jewish centre. His reconnaissance provided vital information for the 10 LeT terrorists and their handlers, who launched the attack on November 26, 2008.
