26/11 terror attack: NIA obtains Tahawwur Rana's voice, handwriting samples

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency on Saturday collected the voice and handwriting samples of Tahawwur Rana, the alleged mastermind behind the Mumbai terror attack, before a Delhi court.

Rana was brought under tight security before Judicial Magistrate First Class Vaibhav Kumar, before whom the NIA recorded his handwriting specimens in an in-chamber proceeding.

Rana wrote various alphabets and numerical characters, the source said.

Legal aid counsel Piyush Sachdev, who represented Rana, said that he "fully complied with a recent court order directing him to submit samples of his voice and handwriting".

The court recently allowed the NIA to collect the voice and handwriting samples of Rana.

Special NIA judge Chander Jit Singh, who on April 28 extended Rana's custody for 12 days, passed the order on April 30 on an application moved by the NIA.

Rana, a close associate of 26/11 attack main conspirator David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani, a US citizen, was brought to India after the US Supreme Court on April 4 dismissed his review plea against his extradition to India.

On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists carried out a coordinated attack on a railway station, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre, after they sneaked into India's financial capital using the sea route in the Arabian Sea.

As many as 166 people were killed in the nearly 60-hour assault.