India seeks access to Headley's wife, ex-wife Vishwa Mohan, TNN, Mar 19, 2010, 03.41am IST

Source: TOI
NEW DELHI: With India failing to gain access to US-based jihadi David Coleman Headley, agencies here have now sought access to his wife (of Pakistani origin) and ex-wife (American) to ascertain whether they had any knowledge about his activities in India.

Though FBI has already grilled them along with Headley's other relatives and shared whatever information it could with National Investigation Agency (NIA), India has asked the US to explore possibility of giving it access to both these women.

A senior official said, "Access to these women does not seem to be difficult as they, unlike Headley, are not under any detention. If US agrees, our sleuths can also question them to find out more about the terrorist's past activities and his source of income."

Headley's wife Shazia lives with their children in Chicago. Though agencies here do not have much information about her, sleuths have come to know that she had never accompanied Headley during his multiple visits to India.

Headley had first married a woman in Philadelphia in 1985. The marriage lasted for only two years and they divorced in 1987. Long since remarried, the woman, who graduated from Pennsylvania State University, is currently working as a real estate consultant in Chester county. She had also not accompanied Headley anywhere outside US.

A woman of Moroccan origin -- Faiza Outalha -- visited India twice along with Headley during 2007-08. Headley had married her in 2006 but the two divorced later. Sleuths have no knowledge of her whereabouts.

Meanwhile, director of US's National Intelligence Dennis C Blair, US ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer and forensic experts met home minister P Chidambaram here on Thursday.

After the hour-long meeting, Roemer said it was aimed at updating the home minister on "continued, very close cooperation" between India and the US as per the "historic understanding" reached between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama in November on fighting the "common enemy of terrorism and continuing to work together".

He told reporters that the US had been receiving "unprecedented day-by-day, hour-by-hour cooperation" from India on counter-terrorism issues. The US envoy, however, refused to take question on Headley's case and his decision of changing his plea.

Foreign minister S M Krishna, meanwhile, said India was looking closely at Headley's offer to plead guilty. He, however, refrained from making any comment on whether India would seek Headley's extradition from the US.

Officials in the home ministry said the question of extradition would come only if the terrorist came out of prison after serving his sentence. "Our priority is to get access to him for interrogation. If he is sentenced to long years of imprisonment, the extradition plea will not hold any merit as the law permits it only if he completes his term there," said an official.

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