Chicago: A team of Indian investigators arrived in the US on Tuesday to interrogate for the first time David Coleman Headley, accused of helping Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists carry out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
The team comprises officers of the National Investigation Agency and a law officer. This will be for the first time that 49-year-old Pakistani-American Headley will be facing direct questions from Indian investigators since his arrest in October last year.
Besides the Indian team, those expected to be present during the questioning would be Headley's lawyer and an officer of the FBI.
The questioning of Headley, currently being held in the federal lock-up Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Chicago, is going to revolve around the places he had visited after the Mumbai terror attacks and the people he had remained in touch with during his stay in India.
Sources in India said the four-member team has prepared questions about his stay in the country especially during March 2009, his last visit to India.
The travel details of Headley, the globe-trotting prized asset of the LeT, are being sought mainly as investigators believe that this visit may have been to finalise the synchronised terror strikes on Jewish houses located in five cities, the sources said.
They said the government has kept 'backup staff' in readiness if the team needed any assistance.
The statement of Headley would be recorded by the Special Law Officer of India after which the NIA, which has registered a case against Headley and Pakistani-Canadian national Tahawwur Rana for waging war against the country and Unlawful Activities Prevention (Act), may file a chargesheet against him.