US mum, as India asks where is David Headley

India has opened up informal channels with the US authorities to find out whether jailed Pakistani American terrorist David Coleman Headley alias Daood Sayed Gilani has been attacked in a detention centre in Chicago on July 8. As media reports poured in on the alleged attack on Headley, sources told THE WEEK that the National Investigation Agency has informally contacted the FBI Liaison officers in New Delhi to confirm the news. No written request has been made. There is no official word yet with the government on Headley's status.

Both the external affairs and home ministries have said they have no information on the matter. But sources in Indian intelligence agencies indicated no incident has taken place.

Secrecy has shrouded Headley’s whereabouts in the last few years. An Indian team, consisting of NIA officials, had travelled to the US in 2010 to record his statement. Then, Headley had been questioned at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Chicago.

But, in 2016, when Headley deposed before an Indian court through video conferencing from a US jail, the defence advocate in the Mumbai court asked Headley and his legal team to disclose his whereabouts.

“The video conferencing happened in an open court and the defence lawyer wanted to know Headley's location when he was speaking. But Headley and his lawyer said that his location was secret and could not be disclosed to the Indian authorities. Headley's lawyer had even objected to the question,” Ramesh Mahale, chief investigator of the 26/11 case, told THE WEEK.

It is in this context that the present development may be seen. It remains to be seen if the US authorities are willing to disclose where Headley is being put up following his plea bargain with the US government in 2010 that helped him escape death penalty.

The plea bargain said that he would not be extradited to India, Denmark (where he hatched a terror conspiracy) and Pakistan for any offences for which he has been convicted under the plea, including conspiracy to bomb places of public use in India.

“Such a plea bargain itself meant that Headley was no ordinary prisoner and his safety would have been taken care of,” said a senior official.

For India, it is a tough call to extract the whereabouts of the alleged spy who conspired with the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistan's ISI to carry out the Mumbai 26/11 terror strike.

Senior government officials said prima facie it appears unlikely that Headley, who was serving a 35-year sentence, would have been living in the detention centre in Chicago, where prisoners who are serving long-term sentences are usually not sent.

Headley, now 54, has been in jail since his arrest on October 3, 2009, by FBI agents in Chicago where he was trying to board a fight to Philadelphia.

Investigating officials said that Headley's life or death will not impact the case as he has already deposed before the Indian court and confessed to the role of Pakistani state actors in the 26/11 Mumbai attack.

But the public prosecutor for the 26/11 case, Ujjwal Nikam, has a different take. He pointed out that till now the Pakistani court hearing the 26/11 case has not sought Headley's deposition. The 26/11 trial in Pakistan is still going on at a slow pace. At a time when 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed is busy testing the political waters by trying his hand at domestic politics, it is unlikely that Islamabad will want Headley's deposition in the case anytime soon.

While Nikam refused to comment on the matter, he said that Headley was in possession of damning evidence against Pakistan and Hafiz Saeed.

“I cannot comment on the issue. But after Headley struck a plea bargain with the US authorities, we made him a witness in the 26/11 case. Headley shared details of Pakistan's role in 26/11 and was a prime witness in the case against role of state actors in Pakistan in carrying out the terror strike,” he said.

There have been unanswered questions like the details of Headley’s Pakistani origin, who were the ''state actors'' he was close to, how did the US citizen manage to sneak into India several times, and who all knew about the 26/11 conspiracy. Pakistan has neither confirmed nor denied anything. And if the rumours of the alleged fatal attack on him are true, it may remain a mystery forever.