KOCHI: Following reports that LeT activist and US national David Coleman Headley had visited Kochi during his sojourn in India, a team of National Investigation Agency(NI A) officials will visit Kerala to collect the details of Headley’s travel itinerary here.
NIA sources said that after the NIA registered cases against Headley and his accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana on charges of plotting terrorist attacks in India, a team was constituted to collect the complete itinerary details of Headley during his stay in Kerala.
Sources say that the investigation in Kerala will be focused on tracing Headley’s links, if any, with certain organisations in the State.
“It will be a comprehensive inquiry as any crucial link will help the investigation agency trace the `sleeper cells’ in the State,” they said. NIA chief Radha Vinod Raju told Express that it was premature to comment on the investigation at this juncture.
Officials of the investigation agency which is probing into the case will visit the State, if needed. However, details of the visit will not be revealed as the operation will be conducted in a highly clandestine manner.
The officials said that they would come to a conclusion only after getting the evidence in black and white.
Meanwhile, Union Home Ministry officials said that Kerala was not put on high alert even though the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) had issued an advisory, alerting the states along the West Coast on possible infiltration by terrorists.
The warning was issued on the basis of inputs from the FBI, which has interrogated Headely.
Officials of the Foreigners Registration Office (FRO), Kochi, said that they had collected documents related to the visit of Rana to Kochi.
Crucial evidence gathered
Sources in the investigation team said they had collected crucial evidence related to Rana’s visit to Kochi on November 16 last year and his stay at the Taj Residency.The sources said that an advertisement had appeared in a daily on November 17, 2008 which stated that one ‘Dr Rana - a migration consultant - would be in the city to meet all those interested in migrating to Canada and the US. “As per the advertisement, Dr Rana will be in Delhi on November 14 and 15; in Kochi on November 16 and 17; in Ahmedabad on November 18 and in Mumbai on November 20, “ the sources said, adding that they need to ascertain some more details regarding his visit because the advertisement appeared on November 17. The investigation team had got documents supporting Rana’s visit to the city, sources said.