NIA may finally get David Headley aide to India

NEW DELHI: As India observed the tenth anniversary of 26/11 Mumbai attacks, it appears that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will finally have its man – former Pakistani army physician turned businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana - after years of persuading American prosecutors.

According to reliable sources, during their interaction with the NIA through video conferences, the officials of United States’ department of justice (DoJ) have informed that they are convinced with India’s charges against 57-year old Rana, who had helped co-conspirator David Coleman Headley in reconnaissance of targets in Mumbai and allegedly planned attacks at National Defence College (NDC) and Chabad Houses.

Officials asserted that India’s request for extradition of Rana on the charges of Indian Penal Code (IPC) related to forgery and criminal breach of trust as he used his firm for making documents of Headley in Mumbai, have been accepted by the US prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) both and they are inclined to honour India’s request. Earlier, the “double jeopardy” clause in the US law, according to which a person cannot be punished for the same crime twice, was causing hindrance in Rana’s extradition but NIA had renewed its request in 2016 under forgery charges.

“We know David Coleman Headley cannot be extradited to India as he has already entered a plea bargain in US, which grants him exemption from extradition, and is facing a 35-year prison term there. However, our efforts to bring Rana to India are on and a final decision on his extradition is likely to taken soon,” an official, requesting anonymity, said.

The FBI had arrested Rana in Chicago on October 18, 2009 for providing material support to the conspiracy to commit terrorist acts involving murder, kidnapping and maiming outside the US, including Mumbai and Copenhagen.

He was convicted in 2013 by the Chicago court of conspiracy to provide material support to a plot from October 2008 to October 2009 to commit murder in Denmark, including a plan to behead employees of Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten and throw their heads on to the street in Copenhagen.

Rana is also accused of providing material support, from late 2005 to October 2009, to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which planned and carried out the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. He is currently facing a 14-year jail term.

During his trial in the US, the DoJ prosecutors had presented evidence which showed that Rana knew he was assisting a terrorist organisation and murderers, knew their violent goals, and readily agreed to play an essential role in achieving their aims. The US government had argued during the trial that Rana knew the objective of his co-conspirators was to retaliate against and influence the Danish government for its perceived role in the publication of the Prophet Mohammed cartoons, and he knew that the goal of Lashkar was to retaliate against and influence the Indian and Danish governments and intended that the support he provided—enabling Headley’s activities—would be used toward that purpose.

Headley had claimed before the investigators that he advised Rana, his long-time friend since the time they attended high school together in Pakistan, of his assignment to scout potential targets in India. Headley obtained approval from Rana, who owned First World Immigration Services in Chicago and elsewhere, to open a First World office in Mumbai as cover for his activities.

Rana directed an individual associated with First World to prepare documents supporting Headley’s cover story and advised Headley how to obtain a visa for travel to India, according to Headley’s testimony, as well as e-mails and other documents that corroborated his account, according to a FBI statement.

“Rana told Headley that the attackers involved in the Mumbai attacks should receive Pakistan’s highest posthumous military honors,” the FBI added.