Tahawwur Rana likely devised terror plots like 26/11 for other cities: NIA to court

Tahawwur Rana, the key accused in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, has been remanded to NIA custody for 18 days.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on April 10 told a Delhi court it suspects that 26/11 Mumbai attacks key accused Tahawwur Rana devised similar terror plots to target other cities in the nation.

National Investigation Agency (NIA) began interrogating the 26/11 key accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana on Friday. (AFP)

The federal agency made the claim before special judge Chander Jit Singh at the Patiala House, who remanded Rana to a 18-day NIA custody. The judge directed the agency to conduct the 26/11 key accused's medical examination every 24 hours and allow him to meet with his lawyer every alternate day.

The Delhi court also allowed Rana to use only a soft-tip pen and meet his lawyer in the presence of the NIA officials within an audible distance.

Tahawwur Hussain Rana on Thursday was successfully extradited from the United States and was formally arrested by the NIA as soon as he stepped out of the plan in the national capital.

Rana, a close aide of another Mumbai attacks mastermind David Coleman Headley, was lodged in a US jail after being arrested there in October 2009 in a separate case. He had helped Headley secure a visa and SIM cards when the LeT man visited India during the planning phase of the 26/11 attacks.

As many as 166 people lost their lives when 10 terrorists associated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba held India's financial capital under siege from November 26, 2008 to November 29, 2008.

During the arguments in the court, NIA said that Rana's custody was required to put together the full scope of the conspiracy, and submitted that he was required to be taken to various locations for retracing the steps of the events that occurred 17 years ago.

‘Similar plots developed elsewhere’

"His (Rana) prolonged custody has been deemed necessary to facilitate an extensive interrogation aimed at uncovering deeper layers of the conspiracy. We suspect that the tactics used in the Mumbai attacks were intended for execution in other cities as well, prompting investigators to examine whether similar plots were developed elsewhere," the NIA is believed to have told the judge, news agency PTI reported, citing a source.

To get a better understanding of how things went down before and during the 26/11 attacks, officials might take Rana to several places, reconstructing the crime scene and gaining a deeper insight into the terror network at play, the source reportedly added.

During Rana's production in court, the NIA DIGs, one IG and five DCPs of Delhi Police were present in the premises.

Now that Rana has been remanded by the court, he will remain under NIA's purview for 18 days. The agency will "question him in detail in order to unravel the complete conspiracy behind the deadly 2008 attacks" during this time. The interrogation process has already started.

NIA had sought Tahawwur Rana's extradition under the sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging war), 121 A (conspiracy to wage war), 302 (murder), 468 and 471 (forgery) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 18 and 20 of stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), which deal with terrorist activity.