Indian team in US not gung-ho about Headley access

Indian agencies are not sounding gung-ho about the access that they will get to David Headley, the terror suspect, who has confessed before the Federal Bureau of Investigation that he was involved in the Mumbai 26/11 attack.

The four-member team of the National Investigating Agency is present in the US along with law officers to interrogate Headley. Armed with a questionnaire regarding the Mumbai attack, the team also has a back up waiting in India in case of any further assistance.

Sources told rediff.com that the Indian team in the United States not been easy so far and there are too many formalities and procedures that need to be followed. Moreover, they are also aware of the fact that this exercise will not be complete until and unless they manage access to Rana which they would push for once the Headley questioning is complete.

However, more important aspect, according to Indian investigators, is the access to Tawwahur Rana, Headley's co-accused in the Mumbai plot.

First we need to get access to Headley and then we will surely seek for Rana, they say. Sources say the access to Headley is likely to happen on Friday, but that would depend on the foreign authorities. Indian team has been told that in all probability, they may get to interrogate Headley today.

Indian intelligence agencies say that when the investigation pertaining to the Headley angle was done, at every point the name of Rana did crop up. When things are such then the entire exercise of interrogating Headley becomes useless unless and until it is synchronized with an interrogation of Rana.

On the interrogation of Headley and the visit of the US team, some in the security agencies are upset over the coordination. The coordination over there has not been very good.

The team which is put up in a hotel at Chicago did not expect to wait this long especially since they have left over a week back. It is being said that the interrogation would happen on Friday and it would be direct in nature. An officer of the FBI and Headley legal counsel will also be present.