The Union home secretary said as far as the home ministry is concerned, it was going ahead with its preparations to send a team to interrogate Headley.
India is adamant on seeking access to David Coleman Headley, who last week confessed to plotting and planning the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. A team of experts will travel to Washington to question the Pakistani-American terrorist even as the US ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer, on Tuesday said no direct access to Headley has been made for India. Incensed by Roemer’s statement, a senior home ministry official said it was merely an ‘opinion’ and that access to Headley would be decided by law. “The status has not changed for Headley’s plea bargain arrangement or for US law,” he said.
Senior home ministry officials will meet solicitor-general Gopal Subramanium to discuss legal issues related to the plea bargain. Accordingly, they will prepare documents to question Headley either in person, through video-conferencing or letter rogatory — a request to a foreign court for judicial assistance. “Our understanding on seeking access to Headley has not changed.
We will bring Roemer’s statement to the solicitor-general’s notice,” the official said. He added that a final decision would be taken after Union home minister P Chidambaram returns from the UK on Wednesday.
“As the assistant secretary had indicated, the US is committed to full information-sharing in our counter-terror partnership. In this case, we have provided substantial information to the Indian government and will continue to do so. However, no decision on direct access for India to Headley has been made. The US department of justice will work with the government of India regarding the modalities of such cooperation,” Roemer said.
India was taken aback by Roemer’s comments especially because visiting US assistant secretary Eric Holder had last week assured Chidambaram that India would be provided access to Headley and that Washington was committed to sharing information related to the terrorist. India is angry with Roemer’s differing views and sees them as America’s mixed signals on allowing it to question Headley.
India, however, should not be surprised. In 2002, Indian investigators wanted to question Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, arrested by the US, on the Taliban’s role in the hijack of Indian Airlines plane IC814 in Kandahar in 1999. The US refused India access to Muttawakil for many years and when they did, it was limited. Muttawakil’s access was crucial to reconstruct the exact sequence of events in Kandahar.
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