In a significant development that marked in some ways the revival of 26/11 trial, a Special Court on Wednesday allowed the Mumbai Police to make David Coleman Headley, the terrorist serving a sentence in the US, an accused in the Mumbai attacks case and directed the Prosecution to produce him before it on December 10 through video-conferencing.
More than three years after it filed a supplementary chargesheet in the 26/11 terror attack case, naming leT operative Zaibuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal as one of the key conspirators, the Mumbai police got a formal go-ahead from the special court to make Headley as an accused in the 26/11 attacks case.
Permitting the Mumbai police to make Headley an accused in the revived 26/11 trail, Judge G. A. Sanap noted in his brief order: “Your application, exhibit number 29, is allowed. David Headley is accused number 2 and will be tried under the Indian Penal Code along with the other accused”.
“Issue summons to Headley through US District Court for North eastern district of Illinois, USA for appearance before this court on December 10,” the judge directed
Special Public Prosecutor Ujwal Nikam.
In effect, Judge directed Nikam to produce Headley, who is currently serving 35-year sentence in a terror case in a US jail, before his court on December 10, the day he would hear Jundal ( the accused no 1) in the revived 26/11 case.
Apart from confessing to his close links with leT, Headley has admitted to the US investigators that he had done reconnaissance for the 26/11 attacks.
Investigations have so far revealed that Headley visited India five times between 2006 and 2008, drew maps, took video footage and did physical reconnaissance of several targets for the attacks, including the Taj Hotel, Oberoi Hotel and Nariman House.
Headley had allegedly passed the vital information that he had obtained through his reconnaissance of the target for use by the ten leT operatives who carried out the attacks on various places in Mumbai like Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Taj and Oberoi-Trident hotels, Jewish centre Nariman House, and popular eatery Café leopold during the November 26-29, 2008 attacks, in which 166 people were killed and 300 others injured.
The Mumbai police had made moved the special court here on October 8, seeking a joint trial of Ansari and Headley in the 26/11 case.
Talking to The Pioneer, Nikam said that making Headley an accused in the 26/11 case marked the revival of the 26/11 case. “We are approaching the US authorities through diplomatic channels to ensure his production before the special court through video-conferencing on December 10,” Nikam said.
Asked if he was confident of ensuring Headley’s presence before the special court through video-conference on December 10, Nikam said: “We are making all our efforts. let’s see what happens”. Nikam’s comments should be seen in the backdrop of the failed attempts by New Delhi have Headley extradited from US to India for the original 26/11 trial.
Mohammed Ajmal Kasab is the only accused who has so far convicted and sentenced to death in the 26/11 attacks case. (In all 35 leT functionaries, including Hafeez Mohammad Saeed, Zaki-Ur-Rehaman lakhvi, Abu Hamza and Abu Al Kama, were named as wanted accused in the original 26/11 attacks trial).
In an amended criminal complaint in the Illinois court against Headley, his accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana, on October 21, 2009, the FBI had given details about the reconnaissance done by Headley in India and his links with Rahul Bhatt, whom he (Headley) had befriended during his trips to India. Bhatt and his fitness instructor friend Vilas Pandurang Varak had subsequently confirmed having met Headley during visits to India.
Given that Headley is going to be tried along with Jundal, the revived trial is very crucial in view of the fact that 14,676-page supplementary chargesheet filed before Additional Metropolitan Magistrate PS Rathod, on October 16, 2012, dwells extensively upon the conspiracy hatched by leT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman lakhvi, Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, and others to carry out attack and the role allegedly played by Jundal in it.