Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks convict, who was recently extradited to India from the US, is being interrogated for 8 to 10 hours daily by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a push to uncover the broader conspiracy behind the deadly attacks, PTI reported, quoting top sources.
The sources said Rana was being grilled by the NIA investigators for around eight to ten hours daily to probe a larger conspiracy behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
Rana is a co-conspirator in the 2008 terror assault carried out by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which left 166 dead and over 230 injured in India’s financial capital.
The 64-year-old Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman is said to be grilled based on various leads gathered by the probe agency during its investigation, including a large number of phone calls between him and his co-conspirator David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani.
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“Rana has been cooperating during the questioning,” a source said, adding that a team of NIA officials led by Chief Investigating Officer Jaya Roy is interrogating him.
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, the sources said.
As per the officials, the NIA is ensuring Rana’s medical check-up, and he is being allowed to meet his lawyer following the order of a Delhi court.
Rana, who is currently lodged in a high-security cell inside the NIA’s headquarters at Delhi’s CGO Complex, has so far asked for only three things — a pen, paper sheets or notepad and Quran — which have been provided to him, sources told PTI.
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The terror attack convict is under 24/7 surveillance, and a team led by Chief Investigating Officer Jaya Roy is spearheading the probe.
They said there has not been any specific food-related demand raised by Rana so far, and he is being provided with “food items which are given to any other accused”, according to the standard protocols meant to deal with such subjects.
Tahawwur Rana arrest
Tahawwur Rana was formally arrested on April 10 following his arrival at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport upon his extradition from the US.
Rana has been charged with numerous offences, including conspiracy, murder, commission of a terrorist act, and forgery in the country.
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.