As many as 166 people were killed in the nearly 60-hour assault in Mumbai in 2008.
A court in Delhi has granted the National Investigation Agency, India's premier anti-terror probe agency, a 12-day extension in the custody of Tahawwur Rana, a mastermind in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
The NIA was seeking a 12-day extension from the court after the expiry of the 18-day custody that had earlier been granted to the probe agency.
Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman, was a close associate of one of the conspirators of the 26/11 attacks, David Coleman Headley. Rana was in a jail in the US, and India had placed an extradition request before the American government to bring Rana and get his custody. On April 4, the US Supreme Court dismissed his review plea against his extradition, and he was brought to India in a special plane on April 10.
The judge allowed Rana to use only a "soft-tip pen" and meet his lawyer in the presence of the NIA officials, who would be out of audible distance.
The NIA said that as part of the criminal conspiracy, accused number 1, David Coleman Headley, had discussed the entire operation with Rana before he visited India.
Anticipating potential challenges, Headley sent an email to Rana detailing his belongings and assets, the NIA told the court, and Headley also informed Rana about the involvement of Pakistani nationals Ilyas Kashmiri and Abdur Rehman, who are also accused in the case, in the plot.
The NIA made this submission before a special judge at the Patiala House Court in Delhi.
Seeking custody of Rana earlier, the probe agency said, it was required to piece together the full scope of the conspiracy, and submitted that he was required to be taken to various locations for retracing the events that took place 17 years ago.
The agency said it needed to investigate Rana's links with other terrorists and those accused in the case.
"A detailed investigation is required. He has to be confronted with a lot of evidence. His statements would lead to additional discoveries," the NIA told the court.
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.
