Tahawwur Rana being interrogated for 8-10 hours daily by NIA

New Delhi: Mumbai terror attacks key mastermind Tahawwur Hussain Rana is being interrogated for eight to ten hours daily by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) sleuths to unravel a larger conspiracy behind the dreaded strikes, official sources said on Monday.

The NIA officials are ensuring Rana's medical check-up and he is being allowed to meet his lawyer, according to the order of a Delhi court that had on early Friday morning granted 18-day custody to the probe agency following his extradition from the US, they said.

The sources said Rana is being grilled by the NIA investigators for around eight to ten hours daily to probe a larger conspiracy behind the 2008 dastardly strikes orchestrated by Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and in which 166 people were killed and over 238 injured.

"Rana has been cooperating during the questioning," a source said, adding that a team of NIA officials led by Chief Investigating Officer Jaya Roy is interrogating him.

The sources said Rana has so far asked for only three things -- a pen, paper sheets or notepad and Quran -- which have been provided to him.

They said there has not been any specific food-related demand raised by Rana so far and he is being provided with "food items which are given to any other accused" according to the standard protocols meant to deal with such subjects.

The sources said the dreaded terror attacks plotter is kept in a highly-secured cell inside the anti-terror agency's head office here at the CGO Complex and is guarded by security personnel round-the-clock.

The 64-year-old Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman is said to be grilled on the basis of various leads gathered by the probe agency during the course of its investigation, including a large number of phone calls between him and his co-conspirator David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani, a US citizen currently in prisons in that country.

The investigators also hope to find some important leads on his travels in parts of northern and southern India days before the carnage in the country's financial capital on November 26, 2008, the sources said.

The anti-terror agency had produced Rana before the NIA Special Court at Patiala House after formally placing him under arrest following his arrival at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport here on April 10 upon his extradition from the US.

Rana has been charged with numerous offences, including conspiracy, murder, commission of a terrorist act and forgery in the country.

The NIA had secured Rana's extradition from the US following years of sustained efforts and after the terror mastermind's last-ditch efforts to get a stay on his extradition from the US failed.

The anti-terror agency had registered a case on November 11, 2009 under sections 121 A of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 18 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Section 6(2) SAARC Convention (Suppression of Terrorism) Act against Headley, his childhood friend Rana and others.

During the NIA investigation, the roles of senior functionaries of terror groups LeT and Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HuJI) -- Hafiz Muhammad Saeed alias Tayyaji, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Sajjid Majid alias Wasi, Illyas Kashmiri and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed alias Major Abdurrehman alias Pasha -- had also emerged.

These conspirators worked in active connivance with officials from Pakistan's spy agency ISI, namely Major Iqbal alias Major Ali and Major Sameer Ali alias Major Samir, according to the NIA probe.