Police awaiting access to 26/11 conspirator David Headley

MUMBAI: Three years after the Mumbai terror attacks, city police are still awaiting access to 26/11 conspirator David Headley and his alleged accomplice Tahawwur Rana, as there is no response from a US court yet to the letters rogatory (LR) that enables cops to question the duo.

In October, a metropolitan magistrate's court here had issued LR to a US court requesting the latter to enable Mumbai police to question Headley and Rana in the 26/11 terror attack case, over a year after the National Investigation Agency ( NIA) was granted access to the two.

LR is a formal request by a court in one country to another in a foreign land, seeking judicial assistance.

"We had sent the LR to the Chicago court (that tried Headley). But, as of now, there is no response from there," Joint police commissioner (Crime) Himanshu Roy told PTI.

"We want to question Headley and Rana, which will help us to establish their local links in Mumbai," he said.

A four-member team of NIA officials, led by Loknath Bahera, had questioned Headley face-to-face, for a week in June last year to elicit information about his role in the Mumbai attacks, the wider conspiracy and all those involved in the carnage.

However, to protect the confidentiality of the investigations being carried by both India and the United States, the two countries did not to disclose the contents of the interviews.

Headley had, on March 18 last year, pleaded guilty to conspiring in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in November 2008, as well as later planning to attack a Danish newspaper, but struck a plea-bargain deal with the US authorities that saved him from death penalty and extradition to India.