Bhatt seeks PM intervention

Hashmi denies meeting Headley

Bhatt wrote a letter to Singh in which he expressed his “deep anguish over the manner in which the investigation was handled after his son Rahul voluntarily shared information with the police.”

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria has already gone on record stating that it was Rahul who approached the police on his own and told them that the person by the name “Rahul” referred to in Headley’s emails was nobody else but himself.

For the investigators, Rahul is a witness in the case and not a suspect and Maria asked the media to observe restraint and be responsible in reporting the investigations. But the damage has already been done, and that is what has perturbed Mahesh Bhatt. “I have narrated the chain of events I and my family had to go through after my son did what was expected of him as a responsible Indian citizen,” the film veteran said on Thursday.
The film maker alleged that the investigating agencies, in this case the National Investigative Agency (NIA) and perhaps certain lower rank officials of the crime branch, had leaked “selective information” to the media, which projected his son “in a wrong way.”

Bhatt’s nephew and actor Emraan Hashmi trashed media reports about his meeting Headley and said there was no truth in those reports. “These allegations are baseless, and are causing harm to my image and day-to-day life. I am very upset by the irresponsible behaviour of the media,” he said.

“I was in touch with Joint Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, Rakesh Maria, to clarify whether the NIA had given any such information to the media. However, Maria very clearly denied any such information having been passed on and that my name has never been linked in this case,” he said.

Chaabria has also denied having ever met Headley.

SIM card

Meanwhile, the SIM card of a mobile phone used by the 26/11 terrorists to talk to their Pakistani handlers during the attacks last year has been traced to a Delhi resident whose whereabouts are still not known, a witness informed the trial court here.

Deposing before the designated judge M L Tahilyani, former Airtel nodal officer Sunil Tiwari said on a request made by the Mumbai police, he had made inquiries about the SIM card number used in the phone number 09910719124 and found that it was issued in the name of Suresh Prasad, a resident of Masoorpur in New Delhi.

The SIM card was issued on October 5, 2008, to Prasad who had given a fake address, the witness said in response to a query by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.

The witness said on November 27, while the attacks were on, then additional police commissioner Parambir Singh had forwarded a written request to his company to inquire about the SIM card and also to divert all calls from the number to 022-23053162. Accordingly, his request was complied with, the Airtel officer said.

Another witness, Govinder Singh Bakshi, who owns the ‘India Communication’ shop in Delhi also deposed saying Prasad had purchased the SIM from him and personally collected it.