Centre insists it will still carry out investigations against him, BJP says govt did too little, too late
Centre insists it will still carry out investigations against him, BJP says govt did too little, too late
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In a verdict that "disappointed" India, a US jury cleared Pakistan-born Canadian Tahawwur Rana of charges that he helped with the Mumbai attack while convicting him of supporting Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Islamist militant group blamed for the carnage. The Indian government stressed it was still carrying out investigations against Rana, but the BJP said New Delhi had done too little, too late to get him convicted for the Mumbai attack.
Rana, 50, was held "not guilty" by a jury in the famed Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago on Thursday, bringing some relief to the terror suspect and his family present.
Scot free: A US jury cleared Pakistan-born Canadian Tahawwur Ranau00a0
of Mumbai terror attack charges, but convicted him for supporting
Lashkar-e-Taiba
It was a major victory for the defence because the guilt would have meant life in prison. As Judge Harry Du00a0 Leinenweber acquitted him for the 2008 slaughter of 166 people, including six Americans, in Mumbai, his wife, mother and some other family members huddled together in prayer in the court. But the verdict disappointed the Indian government, which had been monitoring the court proceedings to file charges in India against Rana and his close friend David Coleman Headley, who has confessed to filming 26/11 terror sites and other potential terror targets.
"We are disappointed that Rana was acquitted on the count of conspiracy to provide material support to the Mumbai terrorist attack," UK Bansal, secretary (Internal Security) in the home ministry, told reporters in New Delhi. Bansal said the National Investigation Agency (NIA), probing the case in India against Headley and Rana, was waiting for the proceedings to conclude before filing a chargesheet against them in India.
NIA seeks papers
"The NIA has sought documents and evidence produced in the US court and expects to receive them soon," he said. Bansal said the US court verdict comes despite evidence produced in the US court that Headley had advised Rana of his assignment to scout targets in India. "Headley obtained Rana's consent to open an office of First World Immigration Services as a cover for his activities. Rana advised Headley on how to obtain a visa for travel to India. Headley and Rana had reviewed (the) surveillance of the targets attacked in Mumbai," the Indian official said. He said Rana had told Headley that the terrorists killed in Mumbai should "receive Pakistan's highest military honours posthumously".
The opposition in India lashed out at the Congress-led government for not doing enough to get Rana convicted over the Mumbai attack. Rana, a former Pakistani military doctor, was found guilty of helping the LeT and providing cover and material support to an attempted plot to kill a Danish cartoonist for his "offensive" cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Rana is expected to be sentenced later. He faces up to 30 years in prison. US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said he was happy with the guilty verdicts but disappointed that Rana was not found guilty in connection with the more serious charge of assisting in the Mumbai attack, Chicago Sun Times said.
Outside the courtroom, Rana's attorneys, Charles Swift and Patrick Blegen, said they were very disappointed with the two guilty verdicts but said they were glad he was not found guilty of the Mumbai siege. During the two-week trial, prosecution's star witness Headley, who has pleaded guilty for his role in the Mumbai attack and the Denmark plot, claimed Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency and LeT separately gave him identical instructions to scout locations to be attacked.
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