A special court on Wednesday adjourned the deposition of incarcerated leT operative and conspirator-turned-approver David Headley in the ongoing trial of 26/11 attacks for Thursday following a technical glitch in the video conferencing at the end of the United States.
Headley, who was to continue his deposition through video-conferencing from an undisclosed location in the United States, could not provide any testimony during the day, as a technical problem arose at 7 am when the hearing was scheduled to begin in the court of Additional Sessions Judge GA Sanap. The video-link could not be established between United States and the Special Court in Mumbai.
After unsuccessfully trying to rectify the problem, the US officials requested Judge Sanap to defer Headley’s deposition to Thursday. They assured the judge that Headley would take an hour or two additionally on Thursday in order to make up for the time lost on Wednesday.
Having initially adjourned the hearing for some time at 7.30 am, the judge adjourned Headley’s deposition for the day at 10.15 am, after reviewing the situation and accepting the US officials’ request to that effect. The Judge said that the court would sit between 7 am to 2 pm on Thursday.
Talking to media persons after the adjourned hearing, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said: “Headley’s hearing could not take place owing to a technical glitch at the United States’ end. After they failed to establish video-link, the US officials requested the judge to postpone the hearing till tomorrow. The request was accepted by the judge. The judge also agreed to hear Headley for one to one and half hours more than the scheduled time between 7 am to 12.30 pm”.
During the course of the day, the Mumbai Crime Branch and NIA officials were in touch with an FBI official, who was in turn talking to the US attorneys to see if some deposition could take place on Wednesday. “We had two telephone lines ready, both were working. However, while the US attroneys could speak to us over telephone, they could not connect with us through the video link. The Department of Justice of the United States regretted that David Headley could not be produced,” Nikam said.