NEW DELHI: The US has not sought extradition of former Indian police official Vikas Yadav in the alleged plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
The process to seek extradition of an individual can kick off only if he is convicted by court, said a source adding that the indictment by the US Department of Justice does not mean Yadav, or anyone else, is guilty. Also, if the US insists, New Delhi could turn around and ask the US to extradite David Coleman Headley, alias Daood Sayed Gilani, for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. “Will the US hand over Headley to us?” the source said when asked if “India could agree to a US request for extraditing Yadav”.
Headley, of mixed Pakistani-American parentage, is in prison in Chicago. He is the man who surveyed and chose the locations of 2008 terror attack in Mumbai. He entered into a plea bargain with the US Department of Justice that included him not getting extradited.
The US, in 2016, allowed Indian investigators to quiz Headley and he told how Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) gave him Rs 25 lakh to procure a boat in which 10 terrorists sailed from Karachi to Mumbai in November 2008.
Headley, in the presence of US officials, had revealed it was ISI that briefed him on various aspects of the plan.
Headley had stayed at Mumbai’s Taj Hotel in March 2007 and May 2007. His Canadian-Pakistani associate Tahawwur Hussain Rana stayed at a guest house in south Mumbai till November 21, 2008, leaving just five days ahead of the 26/11 attacks. The Taj Hotel bore the maximum brunt of the LeT-sponsored strikes.
Headley made nine visits to India between 2006 and 2009, including a visit after the terror attacks. Rana visited India only once and stayed here for a month.