Seven years after 26/11, Headley to be made accused

Seven years after the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) attacked Mumbai, a local court here on Wednesday allowed the Mumbai Police to make Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, a secret agent of the terror group, to be made an accused and face trial.

As many as 166 were killed and over 300 injured in the November 2008 attacks, when 10 fidayeens from Pakistan entered India’s financial capital by water, based on maps and videos provided by Headley, who prior to the attacks, had made five trips to Mumbai.

“Your exhibit (application) is allowed,” said Additional Sessions Judge G A Sanap and asked the Mumbai Police to produce him in the court on December 10 by video-conference from the US, where he is serving a prison term. For this, the Mumbai court also issued summons. The Crime Branch-CID of Mumbai Police on October 8 had moved an application before the court saying Headley deserved to be tried together with 26/11 key plotter Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal—a native of Beed district of Maharashtra—as both of them are conspirators and abettors behind the attack.

The police had pleaded that the Mumbai court may kindly issue a Letter of Request to the US district court of Illinois to produce Headley through video-conferencing.

The offences with which Headley is likely to be charged by this court are distinct and separate than the offences with which he had been charged and punished in the US, the police said. The police had also prayed that the court may proceed  against Headley after taking cognizance of the offences committed by him.

Secret agent
*Headley (born Daood Sayed Gilani) was a spy who conspired with the LeT and Pakistani intelligence officers in plotting the Mumbai attacks and helping them with the ground information
*On January 24, 2013, was sentenced by Judge Harry Leinenweber of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Chicago, to 35 years in prison for his part in the Mumbai attacks.
*He was arrested by the FBI in October 2009 at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago while on his way to Pakistan