Headley’s plea bargain will not affect 26/11 trial: Nikam

The move of Pakistani-American David Headley, charged with conspiracy in the Mumbai terror attacks, to plead guilty before a U.S. court to bargain for a lighter sentence, will not affect the 26/11 trial here, special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam has said.

Forty-nine-year-old Headley, an LeT operative arrested by FBI last October, has moved the plea bargain at a court in Chicago which is likely to come up for hearing tonight.

Mr. Nikam said it was not yet clear whether Headley would plead guilty to all the charges or only to some of the charges but this, in any case, would not affect the 26/11 case in the Mumbai court as the trial has already reached its fag end.

“However, if Headley admits guilt in the 26/11 conspiracy, then it would vindicate our stand that attackers came from Pakistan and that before the terror attacks, LeT had conducted recce of Mumbai targets through different modules and ways,” Mr. Nikam said.

According to him, key accused Ajmal Kasab had stated in his confession before a magistrate that the attackers were shown CDs of Mumbai targets in a training camp in Pakistan.

Thus LeT had conducted recce of targets through different modules, Mr. Nikam said.

Headley faces six counts of conspiracy involving bombing public places in India, murdering and maiming persons in India and providing material support to foreign terrorist plots and LeT; and six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of U.S. citizens in India.