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There was no ground-level info on Headley
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
Image of David Headley, a terror suspect arrested by FBI, as extracted from copies of his passport. — PTI |
New Delhi, November 13
There are perilous gaps in ground-level information gathering system in the Indian security system. At least that appears from the fact that the names of David Headley and his associate Tahawwur Hussain Rana never figured in the information collected by any policemen in the country. In Mumbai, Headley operated a business for three years and even rented a place. In both the cases, the local cops should have verified his antecedents. In Delhi and other cities like Kochi, Pune, Lucknow and Ahmedabad, he was staying in hotels. Well placed sources in the Home Ministry confirmed that “the names of Headley and Rana had come on to the watch radar only now and that there was no input regarding them in the past”. Even the routine queries that should have been made by the beat constables on duty were never made. “There was no red flag against the name of any person that could be followed up”, said a senior police officer. Senior police officials say it was “shocking” that Headley ran a visa facilitation agency in Tardeo Mumbai and no local-level cop ever made even a routine enquiry. An official in the Ministry of Home Affairs said Headley’s visits to hotels may have gone untraced as he was a US national and normally cops do not looking at US nationals with suspicion. But as per norms, cops on beat duty have to collect details from all hotels about foreign nationals, which later have to be
analysed.
No clean chit to Rahul Bhatt yet
Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, November 13
The Mumbai police may grill Rahul Bhatt, son of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, further regarding his links with David Coleman Headley, the Pakistan-born American who has been arrested by the FBI as a member of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), sources said. Headley was living in Mumbai as a businessman running a visa agency for a cover to his alleged links with the terrorist organisations. Rahul’s name cropped up in emails sent by Headley to his bosses in the LeT. Police officials indicated that Headley was a member of a gymnasium Rahul managed in South Mumbai. The filmmaker’s son is a fitness buff and is well known in Bollywood circles as an expert in his field. Headley is said to have used Rahul to rent a flat in posh Breach Candy. Reports say Headley had referred to Rahul as his contact to the bosses of the LeT. Headley had allegedly travelled to India on business nine times between 2006 and 2009. Meanwhile, the Bhatt family has denied that Rahul was involved with any illegal activity. While Mahesh Bhatt has refused to speak to the press, his brother Mukesh Bhatt told reporters here that the police have given a clean chit to Rahul. “Rahul seems to have been given a clean chit. He knew Headley since they bumped into each other in the gym and there is nothing more to it,” Bhatt told reporters here. According to American investigators, Headley had recceed some prominent public schools and sensitive installations to carry out terror attacks. Meanwhile, the Mumbai police said it has called a number of employees of Headley’s agency for questioning.
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