Kerala police today said terror suspect Tahawwur Rana, arrested by the FBI for his role in terror attacks in India, had stayed in a hotel here for two days in November 2008.
While "there are no indications that US citizen David Headley visited Kerala, we have every reason to believe that the person who stayed in the hotel was Rana," DGP Jacob Punnnose told PTI.
His passport and other emigration records point to this direction.
Punnnose said the purpose of Rana's visit was under investigation. "Whatever information is being collected by State police is being passed onto the National Investigation Agency (NIA)," he told reporters earlier.
David Headley, a 49-year-old Pakistan-born US citizen, was arrested in Chicago last month by the FBI, which said he was part of an Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) plan to carry out terror attacks in various places in India.
Police here had conducted a massive search in hotels to find out if Headley had visited Kerala, during which they stumbled upon records of 'various Ranas'.
Rana, who came to Kochi with a woman on November 16 last year and left for Mumbai the next day posing as an emigration consultant, was arrested along with Headley.
On media reports that an LeT suspect had arrived in Kochi, Punnnose said there was no such information so far.
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