The Hindu : Front Page : Headley stayed in Mumbai Taj twice in 2007

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Headley stayed in Mumbai Taj twice in 2007

His associate Rana was also in the city till five days before the 26/11 attack

Mumbai: American terror suspect David Headley stayed at the Taj hotel here twice before the Mumbai carnage while his associate Hussain Rana was in this metropolis till five days before the attack, fuelling suspicion of their link to 26/11.

Official sources in Mumbai said investigations revealed that Headley, arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for planning terror attacks in India, stayed in Room 1809 at the Taj between March 28 and 30, 2007. He came back to the hotel on May 2, 2007 and stayed in Room 314 till May 7.

The Taj bore the brunt of the three-day carnage after Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists struck in Mumbai on November 26 last.

Rana, who is also under FBI custody, stayed in a guest house in south Mumbai till November 21, 2008, before he flew to an European destination on way back to Canada.

The sources said this raised suspicion that he might have given final touches to the terror strikes that left 183 people dead, including some American, British and Israeli nationals.

Investigators also found that Headley stayed in two hotels in April last year in Delhi’s Paharganj, a favourite of budget travellers from abroad, and recovered his passport details.

The National Investigation Agency and Central security agencies are probing the travel details of both suspects to check whether they had any hand in the 26/11 attacks or the serial bomb blasts in the country between 2006 and 2008.

Even as Indian investigators are tracing the movements of the two men, the Headley trail took a new turn with reports of contacts between the suspect and Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul but the filmmaker dismissed the possibility of his son’s involvement in any terror activity.

To visit U.S.

A team of the Mumbai police will fly to the U.S. to gather information about Headley from the FBI.

“As we are also conducting a parallel inquiry into Headley’s terror activities, it will become inevitable for us to fly to the U.S. and seek more information,” a police source said. “We need substantial evidence of Headley’s role in the Mumbai terror attack,” the source added. — PTI

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