MUMBAI: Former IPS officer Y.P. Singh on Wednesday questioned 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks convict David Coleman Headley’s silence on his Indian collaborators and dubbed his deposition before a Mumbai court as ‘legally flawed’.
Singh lashed out at the prosecution for not pressurising Headley to reveal his Indian connections, who would have guided him during his reconnaissance visits to the Siddhivinayak temple and BARC.
“If he has said that he has visited Siddhivinayak temple, BARC, hotels and other sensitive installations. Such plans cannot be made alone. Who are his Indian collaborators? He has not spoken on that. Unless there was a team of locals, who guided him through all these places, who showed him around these sensitive places. It is surprising that the prosecution did not question David Headley to reveal who were his Indian connections,” he told ANI here.
The former IPS officer said Headley’s deposition is ‘legally flawed’ because a person can be tried for a specific offence only once, adding that the latter has already been convicted in US courts in this case.
“He has already been convicted in the court in America for this offence and for that we are now trying to hold him as an accused and then pardon him, and take his deposition,” he said.
“Such things will not yield any results; it has in fact not yielded results. David Headley is narrating a tale, he is not deposing or coming out with evidence. Deposition in the court requires to produce evidence, not to start telling stories,” he added.
Meanwhile, Headley’s deposition has been adjourned till Thursday post a technical snag in video-conferencing.
“Today Headley was supposed to give evidence through video link. But unfortunately, on account of technical problems from the American side, they could not contact us and now it has been informed to us that the matter will be adjourned till tomorrow,” Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told ANI.
Nikam added that the hearing would take place from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.
In his revelation during the deposition yesterday, Headley said that Pakistan's spy agency ISI provides financial, moral as well as military support to terror outfits like the LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen.
Headley said that he was asked by the ISI to recruit Indian army men to spy for them.
On the first day of the deposition, he revealed the sequence of events and planning behind the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
Headley, one of the main conspirators in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, deposed as a witness in the case and admitted that he had come to the city with a false identity at the behest of his colleague and handler Sajid Mir, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative.