File picture of David Coleman Headley.
In a bid to make a watertight case against alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Sayyed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal facing trial for his alleged role the 26/11 terror attacks, Mumbai Police may secure the deposition of American-born terrorist David Headley from the US through video conferencing.
According to official sources, several meetings have been held between senior officials of Mumbai Police, officials in the Prime Ministers' Office and the External Affairs Ministry, after which a proposal for securing a deposition by Headley was planned.
It was not immediately clear whether the US has given the go-ahead for the Headley's deposition through video conferencing during tomorrow's date at the sessions court in the Abu Jundal case. Headley is presently serving a 35-year prison term in the US for his role in the Mumbai attack and Denmark terror cases.
Mumbai Police's crime branch has filed a chargesheet against Jundal in 2012. In its chargesheet, police said that Jundal, along with Lashkar chief Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi and other accused, was allegedly present in Karachi-based "control room", monitoring the terror strike in Mumbai in November 2008.
The police claims Jundal is one of the six 26/11 handlers and taught Hindi to the ten terrorists who took a boat from Pakistan to Mumbai to execute the attack. They say he also familiarised them with the landscape of the city. The three-day-long terror attack had claimed 166 lives.
Jundal was extradited from Saudi Arabia in June 2012 after Indian intelligence agencies gave the local authorities evidence of his involvement in the Mumbai terror attack.