India TV Obtains Copy Of Headley’s Passport, His Passport Number

India TV correspondent Manish Jha on Friday obtained a photocopy of the American passport held by suspected US terrorist David Coleman Headley from the owner of a hotel in Paharganj. Production of passport is mandatory for all foreign nationals staying in hotels inside India, and the Paharganj hotel owner had kept the photocopy of the passport with him. 

CCTV footage of all foreign nationals are also kept in Paharganj hotels, as per instructions from Delhi police, but are destroyed after 15 days. Headley had stayed in the Paharganj hotel in October last year, just before the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, but his CCTV footage is no more available.

David Coleman Headley’s US passport no. is  097536400. It was issued on March 10, 2006 in USA and was valid for 10 years. Headley’s India visa was numbered  Z 314473.

According to the passport details of Headley, he had visited Delhi  and Mumbai during April last year. He had then left for Pakistan. 

Sunny, a property dealer in Mumbai, has revealed that Headley had met him along with his purported wife Ena and he was seeking to rent or buy a house in Pali Hill, Mumbai. Investigators are probing this angle too.

During one of his visits to Mumbai, David Headley had provided the immigration authorities with addresses of two hotels where he would stay.

In the disembarkation card submitted to the immigration authorities, Headley had said he would stay at Trident, Nariman Point and Holiday Inn, Juhu.

This is mandatory for immigration clearance. The lower portion of the card is retained with the customs authorities while the upper part stays with the immigration officers. In some cases, if a passenger arouses suspicion, the authorities also ask for confirmation of the reservation in hotels. 

Trident was one of the places attacked during 26/11. Police sources refused to provide further details saying investigations were on. 

Meanwhile, the middleaged Parsi woman who worked as administrative head at Headley’s immigration services firm in Tardeo is completely shaken.

Times of India reporter traced her but she appeared disturbed. “I do not want to discuss anything about Headley. I am not authorised to speak,’’ she said. The woman also handled Headley’s daily appointments. The police had recorded her statement along with that of another employee in their attempt to trace his Mumbai links. 

The room from where Headley ran his business has been rented out to someone else.

The picture above is the room where Headley had his office in Tardeo, Mumbai. 

A shopkeeper in the market said most of them were not aware of Headley and his staff. “There are premises that have been sub-let without the knowledge of the society. Headley could have occupied one of these premises,’’ a shopkeeper said. 

Cops are examining each and every detail linked to Headley’s stay in Mumbai after FBI reports on Lashka-re-Taiba indicated that he had spent a lot of time in the city. Headley, during his coded communications with Pakistan-based terrorists, had referred to Mumbai.

In Delhi, official sources  said Central security agencies are also investigating Headley's suspected links to terror outfit Indian Mujhaideen, which had carried out a series of bomb attacks across the country, including in Rajasthan and Delhi, that left over 170 people dead. 

Home Minister P Chidambaram had said on Thursday that besides Headley, the National Investigating Agency had registered a case against his Canadian accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana. 

The duo was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and for conspiring to wage war against the country.  Maintaining that Headley had visited India several times before 26/11 and once after the Mumbai terror strikes, Chidambaram had said, "We are conducting investigations in the cities he visited to find out whom he met and what he did."

A top Home Ministry official has claimed that the investigators had enough evidence to show Headley's link with LeT and the Government is all set to produce the documents before a US court in January next and press for his extradition to India.

 "We will press for his extradition to India with the evidence," the official said.  

Meanwhile, in a fresh incident, Bangaldesh police in Dhaka has arrested three terrorists of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Sifia, Zahid and Munaffar, all reported to be Pakistani nationals. 

During interrogation, these three terrorists have told Dhaka police that they were planning to attack National Defence Academy in India  and Doon School in Dehra Dun. They were working under instructions from LeT commander Sheikh Abdul Shahid, sources said.