India prepares for David Headley's interrogation

India on Saturday started preparing documents to launch judicial proceedings in order to question terror suspect David Headley, who is in a US jail and has confessed to having plotted the 2008 Mumbai terror attack with the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan.

Home minister P Chidambaram said he was assured by a top official of the US Justice Department that India will have early access to Headley to interrogate him, possibly in a pre-trial stage.

The home minister spoke with the head of the US Justice Department, Eric Holder over the phone Friday evening. Chidambaram said the conversation “clarified a number of aspects concerning the plea agreement” Headley entered into with prosecutors in the US. According to the plea bargain, Headley cannot be extradited to any foreign country and also cannot be given the death sentence.

“It is my understanding,” Chidambaram said, “that India would be able to obtain access to Headley to question him in a properly constituted judicial proceeding. Such a judicial proceeding could be either pre-trial or during an inquiry or trial.”

He said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had been “directed to quickly prepare the documents necessary to start a
judicial proceeding in which Indian authorities could require Headley to answer questions and/or to testify.”

The NIA had registered a case against Headley, 49, and his associate Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, who is also in a US prison and faces the same charges. He, however, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting a trial. The NIA has not formally charged Headley and Rana but may start their judicial trial after the US assurance.

Seeking to clarify misgivings that the plea bargain was a setback to India, Chidambaram said an aspect of Headley’s agreement was of “enormous significance” because it indicts people in Pakistan.

Chidambaram said the Headley plea agreement is a “damning indictment’ of the role in the attacks played by others in Pakistan. He called for Pakistan to take action against the conspirators, saying nothing short of bringing them to justice will satisfy India or world opinion.

The Mumbai attack is blamed on the Pakistan-based Laskhar-e-Taiba. Headley made five trips to Mumbai and other cities to
survey potential target sites for the terror group, which he told prosecutors he began working for in 2002.  

Headley is the son of a Pakistani diplomat and an American mother.  

A convicted heroin smuggler, he changed his name from Daood Gilani four years ago.

The US Justice Department says he is now providing valuable intelligence as he awaits sentencing.

US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake meanwhile told reporters in New Delhi that although the federal court deal prevents the extradition of Headley on the charges he currently faces, it does not preclude his future extradition on a different set of charges.

“Part of the agreement was that the United States would not extradite Headley either to India or to Pakistan or to Denmark on the charges for which he has now admitted guilt. That does not mean that at some future date some additional charges could not be brought. I don’t want to speculate too much about the possibility of future extradition, but at least on these charges he cannot be extradited,” he said.

But the assistant secretary said India will have full access to question Headley as part of its investigation of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.