Headley probe: Certain periods of his stay in India unaccounted for

Investigators probing US terror suspect David Headley's visit to India have found that certain periods of his stay in the country remained unaccounted for raising fear that certain undesirable local elements might have helped him during his tour.

Official sources said there were no leads available on some durations of Headley's stay in India despite best efforts of the probe agencies to figure out the place of stay and the individuals he contacted.

"The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is trying to piece together the missing periods of Headley's stay in India. We suspect that he might have been helped by some local undesirable elements," a source said.

There is no record of phone calls, travel itinerary or any other clue of certain period of his stay in India, the source said.

Once corroborative evidences are generated about the India operations of Headley and his Pakistan-born Canadian associate Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the government is likely to pass on the information to FBI for further interrogation of the duo on their India-centric operations.

"The NIA has created a special investigative team to probe all emerging leads. We are also considering providing more manpower to NIA in order to complete the probe expeditiously," the source said.

The government was almost certain that LeT commander Zarar Shah was the man handling both Headley and Rana.

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court today charged seven suspects, including Shah, with planning and helping execute the Mumbai attacks.