US, India holding discussions on access to Headley

Yoshita Singh
Chicago, Apr 22 (PTI) The US and Indian authorities
are holding discussions on providing New Delhi access to LeT
operative David Coleman Headley who has confessed to his role
in the Mumbai terror attacks and agreed to be interrogated by
foreign agencies.
"Those discussions (of providing Indian investigators
access to Headley) are going on between our government and the
Indian government at this time. It is part of the plea
agreement that Headley would cooperate with Indian
authorities," Pakistani-American Headley's lawyer John Theis
told PTI.
Theis would not comment on how much more time it would
take before Indian investigators are finally given a date to
quiz Headley and said "those kind of discussions will happen
without the media knowing the specifics of time and place".
Theis said he is not part of the discussions going on
between the US and Indian governments but expects to be
present when Headley is quizzed.
"I would expect to be present anytime that my client
is interviewed by law enforcement officials, be it from India,
US or any other country," he said.
Theis refused to give any more details.
Headley had last month pleaded guilty to plotting the
Mumbai attacks and avoided the death penalty and extradition
to India, Pakistan and Denmark by agreeing to be interrogated
by foreign agencies on US soil.
The US has said it is working "at the highest level"
to provide India access to Headley, who had scouted targets
for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks during his several trips to
India.
US President Barack Obama had assured Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh during latter's recent visit to US
that India would get access to Headley.
Singh had raised the issue with Obama when the two
leaders met in Washington last week on the sidelines of the
Nuclear Security Summit.
India has for long been asking that its investigators
be allowed to quiz Headley directly to unravel the entire
conspiracy behind the attacks. PTI YAS
MYR