New Delhi: India said yesterday that it will continue to press for the extradition of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative David Headley, sentenced by a US court to 35 years in prison for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai attack, and would have liked harsher punishment.
Ministers, the ruling Congress as well as the opposition BJP said the government should keep trying for the extradition of the Pakistani-American who played a key role in the 26/11 attack. A day after a Chicago court’s ruling, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said: “Had we tried him, we would have sought much more.
“We are a little disappointed as we wanted that he should have been brought here and tried as the real loss has been of India. It would have been appropriate if he would have been tried here,” Khurshid told reporters here.
The minister said there was the law of land in the US. “We know that, but we still hope and will try that such people should be brought here and tried,” he said.
“We would have liked a severer sentence. We would have liked the accused to be tried in India. But at least a beginning has been made. We will continue our efforts to ensure that all such people are extradited and brought to India for trial,” Khurshid said.
Under a plea deal, US prosecutors “had agreed not to seek the death penalty against him and to not extradite him to Pakistan, India or Denmark for the offences to which Headley pleaded guilty”, it was stated in the Chicago court.
Khurshid said there was a little disappointment over the quantum of sentence, “but we know that the judge has said clearly that the sentence has been given as there was a provision in their law that he cannot be extradited”. Headley’s sentence would be followed by five years of supervised release. There is no federal parole and defendants must serve at least 85 percent of their sentence.
The US yesterday said the 35-year sentence without parole imposed on LeT terrorist David Headley marks another step in its efforts to bring to justice those responsible for the 26/11. It also justified its decision not to seek death penalty for Pakistani-American terrorist, saying it was done in view of his willingness to cooperate with law enforcement authorities to help bring the perpetrators to justice and help prevent other terror strikes.
Asked about Headley’s accomplice Tahawwur Rana, whom India wants to stand trial here, Khurshid said the government was watching his case closely.
“The same thing continues. There is little difference between the two cases because in this case Headley had given up his right of appeal. In Rana’s case, the right of appeal has not been given up. So, we continue to watch these cases very closely, and such legal intervention as we can make at any time we will continue to do so,” Khurshid said.
Home Secretary R K Singh said the plea deal was between Headley and the US government and that India would keep pressing for his extradition. “Our request for extradition stands and we shall continue pressing for it. All those people involved in the conspiracy to kill 166 people in Mumbai, all of them deserve death,” Singh said.IANS
