Case against management of hotel where Rana stayed

AHMEDABAD - A case was filed against the owner and other employees of a hotel here where terror suspect Tahawwur Hussain Rana and a woman posing as his wife had stayed for two days in November 2008, prior to the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

The First Information Report (FIR), reportedly lodged at the behest of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), against hotel owner Patanjali Keshvani, Prashant Malhotra - the manager when Rana stayed - and present manager Subhash Sharma is for violating rules under the Registration of Foreigners Act and beginning the hotel’s operations even before it obtained a license.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Special Branch) G. N. Malik said the hotel, Lemon Tree, was issued the license on Nov 19, 2008, but actually started taking in guests from Nov 7. Rana, and Samraz Akhtar, who posed as his wife, stayed in the hotel Nov 18 and 19.

Rana, an accomplice of Pakistan-born American citizen David Colman Headley, who visited cities in Gujarat prior to the Mumbai terror strikes, was reportedly “location hunting” to strike in the state as well. He made numerous trips for this purpose before zeroing in on Mumbai.