NIA court extends 26/11 terror attack accused’s detention

A Delhi court on Monday allowed the National Investigation Agency to retain the custody of Tahawwur Rana, the key conspirator in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, for 12 more days taking note of the agency’s allegations that he was evasive during interrogations and needs to be confronted with key evidence.

Special NIA judge Chander Jit Singh, following in-camera hearing, extended Rana’s custody on NIA’s request after as the initial 18-day remand ended on Monday.

Rana was produced in the court with his face covered and a tight security cover of personnel from Delhi police, paramilitary forces and NIA.

NIA prosecutors — senior advocate Dayan Krishnan and advocate Narendra Mann — said that Rana was yet to be confronted with some key evidence, including “voluminous documents” which required his further interrogation.

The prosecutors also said that Rana was evasive on his involvement in the attacks and needs to be interrogated further to “join the dots” pertaining to the conspiracy behind the 2008 attack that claimed 166 lives.

The agency further informed the court that NIA needs time to establish the role of the persons Rana was in contact with at the time of the incident. A day-to-day interrogation of the accused is being carried out, it said.

Rana was represented by Delhi State Legal Services Authority Legal Aid counsels Piyush Sachdev and Lakshay Dheer. Sachdev told reporters that he has been meeting Rana inside NIA’s custody every alternate day as per the court’s previous directions and denied NIA’s claim by stating that Rana is cooperating with the probe.

Rana made no further request before the court even as he was given an opportunity to speak by the presiding judge, Sachdev said.

Earlier this month, while remanding Rana to 18 days’ custody, the court’s order noted that while Section 167 of the erstwhile Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) typically limits police custody to 15 days, Section 43-D of the UAPA dealing with modified applications of certain provisions of the CrPC, allows for up to 30 days of custody.

Rana, a 64-year-old Canadian citizen and former captain in the Pakistan army, arrived in Delhi on a special aircraft at around 6pm on April 11 after the US Supreme Court on April 4 dismissed his review plea against extradition to India.

According to NIA, Rana conspired with his childhood friend David Coleman Headley, who was convicted in the US for his role in the attacks, to conduct reconnaissance of targets in Mumbai. Furthermore, the agency said that Rana was involved in planning attacks on the National Defence College (NDC) in Delhi and Chabad House in various cities.

NIA also accused Rana of conspiring with operatives of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HUJI), both designated terrorist organisations under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), along with other Pakistan-based co-conspirators.

On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists went on a rampage, carrying out a coordinated attack on a railway station, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre, after they sneaked into India’s financial capital using the sea route in the Arabian Sea.

As many as 166 people were killed in the nearly 60-hour assault.