NIA gets nod to record statement of David Coleman Headley’s wife Faiza Outalha

NEW DELHI: Moroccan authorities are believed to have agreed to allow a team of National Investigation Agency ( NIA) to visit the country and record the statement of David Coleman Headley’s estranged wife Faiza Outalha, provided her testimony is not used against her by India.

According to government sources, in a reply to New Delhi’s letter rogatory (LR), the north African country has laid out some other conditions, including raising the question of ‘privilege communication’ between a husband and wife under the Indian laws, for allowing Indian investigators meet Outalha.

Legal experts said ‘privilege communication’ can be used as evidence in the court of law. Headley, one of the key accused in the Mumbai 26/11 terror attack, is currently serving a 35-year jail sentence in the US on charges of terrorism. Indian investigators feel that Outalha’s testimony will help nail the role of Pakistan and Hafiz Saeed in the 2008 attack in Mumbai.

Outalha had accompanied Headley to India when he carried out a reconnaissance mission at Hotel Taj Mahal in Mumbai. The probe team suspects that Outalha may be privy to information related to the planning of 26/11 attacks as Headley was in regular touch with his handlers—Major Iqbal and Major Sameer, both suspected to be from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Headley, a US citizen, has recently made an offer to become an approver in the case being investigated by the Mumbai police.

Both NIA and Mumbai police are probing the 26/11 attacks with the federal agency registering a separate FIR after the arrest of Headley in 2009 to probe a larger conspiracy. According to NIA charge sheet against Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and Headley, Outalha visited India in April 2007 and stayed at Hotel Taj first and then shifted to Hotel Trident.


Both the hotels were targeted by a group of LeT terrorists on 26/11. The charge sheet further says that both Headley and Outalha stayed again at Taj before the latter returned to Karachi in May 2007. Headley, according to NIA, left for Dubai in the same month.

NIA, which pieced together the role of Headley and his linkages to LeT with the help of the United States, said that “during his stay at the hotels, Headley extensively conducted the videography of the hotels and subsequently provided the videos to other co-conspirators based in Pakistan”, according to the charge sheet.

Investigators so far have ruled out Outalha’s direct role in the attack and said Headley used her as a cover and told her that they will go to Mumbai for their honeymoon. This was the second letter rogatory (LR) India sent requesting Morocco for recording Outalha’s statement mainly pertaining to her knowledge about Headley’s association with LeT. It was sent in October last year. In reply to the first LR sent in 2012, the western Kingdom had sent a statement of Outalha recorded by the law enforcing agencies of that country.