New Delhi, Nov 19: Investigators have found evidence to indicate that Tahawwur Rana, arrested along with David Coleman Headley by the FBI for plotting terror attacks on India at the behest of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, and his wife Samraz Akhtar “interviewed” visa-seekers in Ahmedabad and Kochi and stayed with relatives in Agra during their 10-day trip to India just before the Mumbai terror attack.
The couple, who flew into Mumbai from Dubai, returned to the emirate on November 21, 2008. A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is expected to leave for Dubai.
Born in Chichawatni in Sahiwal district of Pakistan, Rana and his wife put out an advertisement for Canada visa-seekers and “interviewed” them during their stay at the three-star Lemon Tree Hotel (picture above) near Law Garden, Ahmedabad and at the then Taj Residency in Kochi. In Agra, Rana stayed at the residence of his wife’s relatives.
Details of Headley’s nine visits to India are also emerging. An American of Pakistani origin, Headley visited Mumbai five times in 2007. He visited India twice in 2008 and once in 2009. In 2006, he spent nearly three months in Mumbai. These were the periods during which he was in India:
• September 14-December 18, 2006
• February 22-March 15, 2007
• March 26-May 20, 2007
• May 22-June 5, 2007
• September 2-October 6, 2007
• October 18-November 3, 2007
• April 7-April 19, 2008
• July 1-July 29, 2008
• March 6-March 17, 2009
Sources said it was during his 2006 visit that Headley opened an “immigration firm” office in Tardeo, Mumbai and even hired a secretary.
–Agencies