New Delhi: NIA today filed a fresh plea in a court in New Delhi for non-bailable warrants against Pakistan-based JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and five other terror suspects for plotting attacks in India, but withdrew a similar petition against David Headley and Tahawwur Rana, saying the US was providing access to them.
Citing reasons for withdrawing the application seeking NBWs against the US-based terror suspects, the National Investigation Agency said, "We want to withdraw the plea against Headley and Rana as they have been duly interrogated by us.
"Moreover, they are in custody of the US with whom India has an extradition treaty," the prosecutor for the agency said.
However, the agency filed a fresh application seeking issuance of NBWs against Saeed, LeT operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and four others, including two Pakistani Army officers, for plotting terror attacks in India.
In an apparent bid to maintain secrecy, the prosecutor parried a court question on specific roles played by the accused, saying, "We cannot discuss such issues in an open court. It is a sensitive case relating to national security.
We are willing to provide a copy of the case diary to the court for perusal."
The case diary also contained the statements of Headley, recorded by the NIA at Illinois in the US, he said.
So far as Saeed and others were concerned, the NBWs were a "condition precedent" for issuance of Red Corner Notices (RCN) against them through the Interpol, he said.
The prosecutor cited various Supreme Court judgements including a verdict on underworld don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar before District and Sessions Judge S P Garg to buttress his arguments that NBWs could be issued against those accused who were living in a country with whom India has no extradition treaty.
"This case is not being filed for an academic purpose. The NIA is serious and wants RCN issued against them so that they could be arrested if they come out of Pakistan," he said.
The court took a copy of the case diary in its records to ascertain specific roles of the accused and fixed the matter for further proceedings on July 20.
Besides Headley and Rana, now in the custody of FBI in the US, the NIA has made Lakhvi, Saeed, Major Iqbal and Major Sameer Ali of Pakistani army, Sajid Mir and Abdul Rehman accused in an FIR lodged on November 11 last year.
They have been booked under various provisions of the IPC, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and SAARC Convention (Suppression of Terrorism) Act, dealing with waging war against the Government of India, conspiracy and procuring arms and ammunition.
Comments
0 comment