Suspected Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) men David Headley (49) and Tahawwur Hussain Rana (48), now in US custody for planning terror attacks in India and Denmark, used satellite phone during their visits to Mumbai and Kochi last year before 26/11, Indian investigators have found.
They are now
probing if Headley and Rana brought the phones with them to the two cities or obtained them from local aides.
The answer to this could help India build up its case against the LeT operatives whose role ahead of 26/11 has come in for close examination. The 26/11 attackers had used satellite phones to talk to their handlers in Pakistan. Both Headley and Rana made several visits to India between 2006 and 2009.
Headley also used a cellular phone when he was in Mumbai last year, but call records reveal it was used “to contact Rahul Bhatt and other people insignificant to the plot he was involved in,” an officer said.
A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which went to Kochi from Mumbai this week, found that Rana used a satellite phone during his visit there. It is not clear yet if he also used a cell phone, but inquiries at the five-star hotel in Kochi he stayed in revealed he had not used the hotel’s phone for making calls.
He, however, received many calls on the hotel number from people aspiring to work abroad.
Rana visited Kochi on November 16 and 17 last year with a woman called Samraz, who he claimed was his wife. He had published ads on behalf of his immigration services firm, First World Immigration Services, seeking applications from job-seekers.