Headley has plea bargain, can’t be extradited

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, May 18

The man who surveyed and chose the locations of 2008 terror attack in Mumbai, David Coleman Headley, alias Daood Sayed Gilani, of mixed Pakistani-American parentage, is in prison in Chicago. However, he cannot be extradited as he has entered into a plea bargain with the US Department of Justice.

The US allowed Indian investigators to quiz Headley and he told how Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) gave him Rs 25 lakh to procure a boat, in which 10 terrorists sailed from Karachi to Mumbai in November 2008.

About the deal

• David Headley entered into a plea bargain with the US Department of Justice
• He pleaded guilty to planning and carrying out the Mumbai attacks
• As part of the bargain, he was exempted from being sentenced to death and from getting extradited to any other country

Headley, in the presence of US officials, revealed it was ISI that briefed him on various aspects of the plan.

Headley had stayed at Mumbai’s Taj Hotel in March 2007 and May 2007. His Canadian-Pakistani associate Tahawwur Hussain Rana stayed at a guest house in south Mumbai till November 21, 2008, leaving just five days ahead of the 26/11 attacks. The Taj Hotel bore the maximum brunt of the LeT-sponsored strikes.

Headley made nine visits to India between 2006 and 2009, including a visit after the terror attacks. Rana visited India only once and stayed here for a month.

The duo used landline and mobile phones to contact their “handlers” in Pakistan and travelled within India on trains.

Headley and Rana’s names first figured as suspects in late 2009, a year after the terror attacks. In Mumbai, Headley operated a business of visa facilitation a rented place at Tardeo. But the local police did not verify his antecedents. In Delhi and other cities like Kochi, Pune, Lucknow and Ahmedabad, he stayed in hotels. There was no red flag against the duo.

During Headley’s trial in the US, his past as an informant of the US Drug Enforcement Agency surfaced. Warnings had been given from within the US system of Headley collaborating with the ISI.

The duo carried out meticulous planning, indicating a military-style preparation being masterminded elsewhere.

David Headley entered into a plea bargain with the US Department of Justice. He pleaded guilty to planning and carrying out the Mumbai attacks. As part of the bargain, he was exempted from being sentenced to death and from getting extradited to any other country. India did not like this plea bargain as the version of Headley was a US-dictated version of the event.