Headley deposes before Mumbai court; admits prior attempts before 26/11

Headley, who had visited Mumbai seven times to scout for targets, revealed that plans to target Mumbai had started over a year before November 26, 2008 and that LeT initially wanted to attack a conference of Indian defence scientists at Taj Mahal Hotel for which even a dummy of the hotel was prepared.

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a commander with the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba who is believed to have overseen the Mumbai attacks, has been free on bail in Pakistan since 2014.

“There have been no action against any one of them”. Well known criminal lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani represented Headley before the special TADA court whereas the special prosecution team was headed Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.

“In January 2008, she complained to the US Embassy in Islamabad that I was involved in terrorist activities and was closely associated with LeT”, he said.

Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist-turned-approver David Coleman Headley on Tuesday described how he was assigned to gather military intelligence in India and recruit spies from the Indian Army.

Headley’s deposition was heard in a Mumbai special court via video conference, marking the first such development in an Indian court.

To enter India, he said he changed his name from Dawood Gilani to David Headley in 2006 so that he could travel here with an American identity and set up some business.

David Headley, who was sentenced in 2013 by a Chicago court to 35 years in a USA prison for his role in the attacks that killed 166 people, also said he worked for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Continuing his deposition for the second consecutive day, Headley said that he was asked by the ISI to recruit Indian army men to spy for them.

He told the court that LeT made two unsuccessful attempts to carry out terror attacks before finally striking in November 2008, once in September and another in October.

As named by Abu Jundal previously, who is being tried in Mumbai, three Pakistani officials had played a key role in the attack, Headley said, in a questioning by National Investigation Agency earlier and in a U.S. court.

On Monday, Headley answered to the 40 questions that were asked by the prosecutors, making numerous revelations of Pakistan and Lashkar of planning and carrying out the deadly 26/11 Mumbai Attacks. Asked who were coordinating for ISI and Lashkar, he said: “I was meeting both”. His visits were aimed at plotting the attack. “To set up office and make my cover authenticated so that I could stay there (in Mumbai) and I could do surveillance”, he said.

The group’s founder, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, lives openly in Lahore, in northern Pakistan, and moves freely throughout the country, impervious to the $10 million reward offered by the United States for information leading to his arrest.

Headley’s deposition will resume again on Wednesday, Nikam told media persons.

Headley admitted that all details except the place of birth, date of birth, mother’s nationality and passport number, were incorrect in his visa application.

Besides Hotel Taj, Headley made videos of Leopold Cafe, Colaba police station, markets and restaurants in Colaba, the naval and air force stations, the Maharashtra Police headquarters, Hotel Trident-Oberoi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, and the Siddhi Vinayak temple in Prabhadevi.