New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday began questioning of Mumbai attacks mastermind Tahawwur Hussain Rana here to unravel the larger conspiracy behind the deadly terror strikes of 2008, official sources said.
Rana was brought to the NIA headquarters early Friday morning after a Delhi court granted 18-day custody to the probe agency, following his extradition from the US.
Rana is being kept in a highly-secured cell, inside the anti-terror agency’s head office at CGO complex here, being guarded by security personnel round the clock, the sources said.
A 24×7 surveillance is being maintained and Rana has been provided with basic necessities like food and meals among others, they said.
The investigation is being led by NIA’s Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Jaya Roy, who is also the Chief Investigating Officer, they said.
“Rana will remain in NIA custody for 18 days, during which time the agency will question him in detail in order to unravel the complete conspiracy behind the deadly 2008 attacks, in which a total of 166 persons were killed and over 238 injured,” said a statement issued by the probe agency soon after the court’s order.
It is learnt that the interrogation is focussed on getting more details on his possible connection with Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which had orchestrated the attacks.
The 64-year-old Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman — a close associate of key Mumbai terror attacks conspirator David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani (a US citizen) — would also be questioned on his suspected links with the officials of Pakistan spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and his exact role behind the attack, the sources said.
The investigators also hope to find some important leads on his travels in parts of northern and southern India, days before the carnage in the country’s financial capital on November 26, 2008, they said.
Rana visited Hapur and Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kochi, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai with his wife Samraz Rana Akhtar between November 13 and November 21, 2008, the sources said.
They said there could have been a larger conspiracy aimed at targeting other places across the country behind his visits to these places, and the exact details would be ascertained only after his interrogation.
Incidentally, Rana’s custodial interrogation comes at a time when senior Maharashtra-cadre Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sadanand Vasant Date is at the helm of the NIA. Date, who was then posted as an Additional Commissioner of Police in Mumbai when 10 terrorists struck the country’s financial capital, had received serious injuries in the terror attack.
Date bravely fought Ajmal Kasab and other LeT terrorist Abu Ismail despite getting seriously injured.
He was appointed as Director General of the NIA, the specialised agency that came up in the aftermath of the three-day terror siege in Mumbai, in March last year.
The anti-terror agency had produced Rana before the NIA Special Court at Patiala House after formally placing him under arrest following his arrival at Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport here Thursday evening, upon his extradition from the US.
The NIA claimed in the court that it suspects terror plots akin to 26/11 Mumbai attacks were devised by Rana to target multiple Indian cities.
The court remanded Rana in 18-day NIA custody. In its order, the court also directed the NIA to conduct a medical examination of Rana every 24 hours, and allow him to meet his lawyer every alternate day.
Meanwhile, security around the NIA office has been beefed up. Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Delhi Police personnel are guarding the outer periphery of NIA headquarters.
The NIA had secured Rana’s extradition from the US following years of sustained efforts, and after the terror mastermind’s last-ditch efforts to get a stay on his extradition from the US failed.
With the coordinated efforts of India’s Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs, along with the relevant authorities in the US, the surrender warrant for the wanted terrorist was eventually secured and the extradition was carried out, the NIA has said.
The anti-terror agency had registered a case on November 11, 2009 under sections 121 A of Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 18 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Section 6(2) SAARC Convention (Suppression of Terrorism) Act against Headley, his childhood friend Rana and others.
Rana is charged with numerous offenses, including conspiracy, murder, commission of a terrorist act, and forgery in the country.
During the NIA investigation, the roles of senior functionaries of terror groups LeT and Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HuJI) — Hafiz Muhammad Saeed alias Tayyaji, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Sajjid Majid alias Wasi, Illyas Kashmiri, and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed alias Major Abdurrehman alias Pasha — had emerged, the officials said.
They worked in active connivance with officials from the ISI, namely Major Iqbal alias Major Ali and Major Sameer Ali alias Major Samir, according to the NIA probe.
