Delhi court hears argument on NIA charge sheet against Headley

New Delhi, Jan 21 (ANI): A Delhi court today heard arguments on taking cognisance of charge sheet filed by National Investigation Agency (NIA) against Pakistani-American David Headley and eight others for planning and executing terror strikes in India, including the 26/11 attack.

The court gave a further date for hearing on February 4 after the arguments in the case remained inconclusive.

"Arguments on the question of taking cognisance had been advanced at length by the NIA... Arguments remained inconclusive. Put up for February 4 for further hearing," said special NIA judge H S Sharma.

The judge said he was giving the date so that he can go through the documents provided by the prosecution (NIA) in detail, before hearing further arguments.uring the arguments, Special Public Prosecutor Dayan Krishnan said that terror outfits like HuJI, LeT and Pakistani Army officials intended to target Indians and tourists.

"The target of HuJI, LeT and officials of Pakistani Army were Indians and tourists. Their target was tourist places like Goa and Bombay where they had done recce several times," said Krishnan.

He further said that Headley's role in the terror strikes has been detailed in the charge sheet.

The NIA had on December 24 last year filed charge sheet against 51-year-old Headley, his Pakistani-Canadian accomplice Tahawwur Rana and founder of Lashker-e-Taiba terror group Hafiz Saeed.

The chargesheet also named 26/11 attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Headley's accomplice and Al-Qaeda operative Illyas Kashmiri for waging war against the country.

Sajid Malik, handler of Headley, and Abdul Rehman Hashmi, former Pakistani Army officer were also named in the chargesheet besides two officers Major Iqbal and Major Samir Ali, believed to be working for Pakistan's snooping agency.

The NIA had registered a case against Pakistani-American Headley and Rana on November 12, 2009 and later on added other names after investigation by central security agencies showed a large set of people involved in terror activities against the country.

During the course of investigation, more than 300 witnesses were examined and evidence was collected from several sources such as banks, hotels, airlines, Internet service providers and telephone service providers. (ANI)