David
Headley appeared before a court in Mumbai via video conference and agreed to
give full details of the planning and execution of the attacks. Headley, 52,
pleaded guilty and co-operated with the US to avoid the death penalty and
extradition to India.
More
than 160 people were killed by gunmen in the November 2008 attack.
The
Mumbai court told Headley that his pardon was conditional and it expected him
to fully disclose all the information he had on the attacks. He appeared before
the court through a video link from an undisclosed location in the US."He
has become a government witness. The court decided to pardon him because his
testimony will give more details of the attacks. He will testify on 8
February," Indian prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told journalists in Mumbai.
Headley's
US lawyer John Theis told reporters he did not "expect anything
substantially different from what he (Headley) has already said and it will be
consistent with his testimony in Chicago". "It [Headley's
pardon in India] also doesn't affect the 35 year jail term that he's serving in
the US," Mr Theis added.
Headley was
sentenced in the US in 2013 on 12 counts, including conspiracy to aid militants
from the Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which India blames for carrying
out the attacks. After initially denying the charges, he eventually pleaded
guilty and co-operated with the US to avoid the death penalty and extradition
to India.
He
admitted to scouting potential target locations in Mumbai ahead of the attacks.
Headley was born
Daood Gilani to a Pakistani father and American mother but changed his name to
David Coleman Headley in 2006 "to present himself in India as an American
who was neither Muslim nor Pakistani", US prosecutors had said.
Headley
is alleged to have told US prosecutors that he had been working with LeT since
2002. Headley acted as double agent for the Americans as well as terrorist
group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is a known fact.He
was arrested by FBI agents in Chicago in October 2009 while trying to board a
plane for Philadelphia. The 60-hour assault on Mumbai began on 26 November
2008. Attacks on the railway station, luxury hotels and a Jewish cultural
centre claimed 166 lives. Nine gunmen were also killed.
A
senior government official claimed that Maharashtra public prosecutor and
senior officials of the central intelligence agencies had meetings with the
U.S. Department of Justice two months ago, which prompted Headley to become an
approver in the case.
The only surviving
attacker, Pakistani Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, was executed last November.