Mumbai, May 26: A day after the Shiv Sena dismissed the prosecution’s claim in a Chicago court that David Coleman Headley had met its “public relations officer” at the party’s Mumbai headquarters in the run-up to the 26/11 attacks, the mysterious Rajaram Rege surfaced on Wednesday and confirmed that he did meet Headley at the Sena Bhavan in “April or May” 2008.
Though he steadfastly maintained that he had nothing to do with the Shiv Sena, Rege said that he spent “three to four minutes” with Headley along with a gym instructor Vilas Warak at the Sena Bhavan at Dadar in north-central Mumbai “six to seven months” prior to the 26/11 strikes. Headley wanted Rege to “take him around the Sena Bhavan” but he refused to oblige the LeT operative.
Talking to The Pioneer over phone from Vengurla in Sindhudurg district, Rege said, “Yes. I did meet Headley at the Sena Bhavan sometime in April or May, 2008. Let alone holding any post, I am not even a member of the Shiv Sena. But, I used to occasionally visit the Sena Bhavan for some social work. During one such visit, I met Headley. Vilas Warak had brought him to the Sena Bhavan. Warak told me that Headley wanted to see the Sena Bhavan. I explained to them that this is not a tourist place and he won’t be allowed to move around freely.”
It was Rege, then a fitness instructor, who had also introduced Headley to filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul Bhatt, who would frequent the gymnasium “Moksha” where the former was employed.
A computer engineer, Rege said that after the brief meeting at the Sena Bhavan, Headley telephoned him once and emailed him a couple of times. During the call, Headley again evinced interest in being shown around Sena Bhavan, but he declined saying that he was neither a Sena activist nor did he know any party leader.
“Headley then emailed me stating that he knew some investment bankers who could invest in infrastructure projects. I told him that he should provide me his company profile, and past experience, and I would study it, and take a decision. He never came back,” Rege said.
——–Agencies