26/11 case: David Headley to be cross-examined from March 22 to 25

Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley will be cross-examined by key 26/11 plotter Abu Jundal’s lawyer for four days in the 2008 terror attack case here, beginning from March 22.

“We informed the court that Headley will depose from March 22-25 via video link from an undisclosed location in US, and the court passed an order,” Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told PTI.

He also said that if needed Headley might also be re-examined by the prosecution later.

Headley, who has turned an approver, concluded his week-long deposition through video-link on February 13 in which he revealed the role and plans of LeT, ISI and Al Qeada to target India.

Last month, on February 22, Judge G A Sanap had directed Nikam to contact US authorities for Headley’s second round of deposition and inform the court by February 25, after which the dates of his testification were to be finalised.

Jundal’s lawyer Abdul Wahab Khan had then also sought four days to cross-examine Headley besides moving an application objecting to his being made an approver in the terror attack case.

Earlier on February 13, the day on which Headley’s week-long deposition ended, the court had adjourned the case for cross-examination by Jundal’s lawyer for a future date.

Headley, who is serving a 35-year jail term in the US in connection with the terror attacks case, had made some startling disclosures during his testimony which began on February 8. He spilled beans on how Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI provides “financial, military and moral support” to terror outfits LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen and how LeT had planned and executed the 26/11 attacks and the role played by ISI officials, involving him too.

He also revealed that LeT had planned an attack at a conference of Indian defence scientists at Taj Mahal Hotel a year before the 26/11 strikes and had even prepared its dummy.

Deposing via a video-link from the US, the 55-year-old terrorist had told the court that—Ishrat Jahan—who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004 in Gujarat—was an operative of LeT.

Headley had also revealed that Al-Qaeda was in touch with him to attack Delhi’s National Defence College and unravelled the plot by LeT and ISI to target Mumbai airport, BARC and the Naval air station here.

He also visited the Indian Army’s Southern Command headquarters at Pune in 2009 on the instructions of ISI’s Major Iqbal, who wanted him to recruit some military personnel to get “classified” information, the court was told.