Headley “interview” over – NIA team heads for home

New Delhi/Washington: A four member Indian National Investigative Agency team despatched to the United States to interrogate Daood Saeed Gilani, a.k.a David Coleman Headley, has returned home after questioning the Lashkar-e-Toiba operative for seven days. In a muted response, the Indian embassy in Washington, has described the mission as being ''useful.''

The Indian team was led by IG of Police Loknath Behera and included two superintendents of police as well as a legal aide. They were meant to interrogate Headley, regarded as a key operative of the Lashkar-E-Toiba and the man who reconnoitred all the key locations in Mumbai for the 26/11 attack.

Access to Headley was provided by the Americans only after a prolonged delay of eight months and that too after persistent pressure applied by the Indian side, which included bringing up the matter in the recently concluded Indo-US strategic dialogue.

While a US department of justice statement claimed that the Indian investigators questioned Headley with ''no restrictions'', sources in the union ministry of home affairs said Headley's lawyer remained present throughout the duration of the questioning.

Sources also said though Headley confirmed a lot of information that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had unearthed during the probe into the Mumbai terror attacks on its own, he didn't volunteer any fresh information.

Sources also said that Headley has confirmed he was acting at the behest of the Pakistan-based outfits when he visited India many times to reconnoitre locations for the Mumbai attacks, as well as for those attacks to be carried out at other locations thereafter.