Headley confession not a setback: Chidambaram
By IANSFriday, March 19, 2010
NEW DELHI - Home Minister P. Chidambaram Friday said Pakistani American terror suspect David Coleman Headley’s confession that he planned the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and his deal with US prosecutors was not a setback to India.
New Delhi, he said, would wait and see and continue its case to extradite or get access to him.
It is not a setback. We have not yet charged Headley. We will charge Headley at an appropriate time, Chidambaram told reporters here.
We will continue with our extradition plea, he said after a cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Headley, a Pakistani born US national, has entered a deal with prosecutors in a Chicago court that he won’t be sentenced to death or extradited to India, Pakistan or Denmark after pleading guilty to terror charges.
There is a good chance that he will testify in judicial proceedings where Indian (investigators) will have a right to question him, the home minister said.
Headley Thursday pleaded guilty to a dozen federal terrorism charges in a Chicago court and admitted his role in planning the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.
Headley, 49, also admitted that he attended training camps in Pakistan operated by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) on five separate occasions between 2002 and 2005.
