Tahawwur Rana On Suicide Watch In NIA Custody, Only Allowed To Use Soft-Tip Pen

After Mumbai terror attacks co-conspirator Tahawwur Rana was extradited to India and sent to 18-day National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody, he remains on suicide watch, as per a report.

According to The Times Of India, Rana is being kept in a highly secure cell within the NIA headquarters and is under 24/7 human and CCTV surveillance. He is allowed to only use a soft-tip pen and meet his lawyer in the presence of NIA officials.

In the 14 feet by 14 feet located on the ground floor of the NIA building, Rana is monitored by multiple-layered digital security systems, only 12 designated NIA officers are authorised to enter and all basic needs - meals, drinking water, medical provisions - are being delivered to him inside.

The headquarters have been turned into a fortress since Rana's arrival. Additional Delhi Police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed and no one is permitted entry without clearance.

Rana, a Pakistani-Canadian, arrived in Delhi on Thursday months after US President Donald Trump said after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks accused will be extradited. He finally landed in Delhi after he exhausted all legal options to challenge his extradition from the US. Judge Chander Jit Singh, presiding over the special NIA bench, granted the NIA 18 days' custody of Rana.

Accused of masterminding the November 26, 2008 attacks, that killed 166 people, Rana will be interrogated to uncover the "deeper layers of the conspiracy". 

Rana has to be confronted with a lot of evidence and his statements would lead to "additional discoveries", the NIA submitted. The agency further told the court it needed to investigate his links with other terrorists and those accused in the Mumbai attack case, Rana, who is a close associate of 26/11 main conspirator David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani, a US citizen, is accused of conspiring with the latter and operatives of designated terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HUJI) along with other Pakistan-based co-conspirators, to carry out the three-day terror siege of India's financial capital.

The NIA's interrogation is focused on getting more details on his possible connection with Pakistan-based LeT, as well as his suspected links with the officials of Pakistan spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

They further said that as part of the probe to piece together crucial evidence and retrace events from 17 years ago Rana may be taken to key locations, allowing them to reconstruct the crime scene and gain deeper insight into the larger terror network at play.

The investigators also hope to find some important leads on his travels in parts of northern and southern India, days before the carnage that began on November 26, 2008, they said. Rana visited Hapur and Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kochi, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai with his wife Samraz Rana Akhtar between November 13 and November 21, 2008, the sources said.