FBI team to finalise its 26/11 chargesheet

A United States Federal Bureau of Investigation team comprising law officials is in New Delhi and will visit Mumbai soon to finalise its own chargesheet besides working on logistics for its officials to appear before a special court holding the Mumbai attack trial.

The team, which arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday evening, held talks with the FBI station official posted at the US Embassy and is on its way to Mumbai, official sources the capital said on Wednesday.

The sources said the FBI team held discussions with central security agencies which had probed the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes and intercepted telephonic conversation between the Lashker-e-Tayiba militants and their handlers in Pakistan.

The team was also likely to hold a meeting with officials of the law and external affairs ministry, the sources said, adding a discussion with the lawyers appearing on behalf of the government would also be held in Mumbai.

The visit was aimed at helping the FBI to finalise its own chargesheet in the case, which it will submit before the US courts. As per the US laws, the FBI has to probe the death or torture of any American citizen outside the US and submit a chargesheet. Six US nationals and a British national lost their lives in the Mumbai attacks.

The FBI team was likely to take over the evidence from the Mumbai police formally in connection with its case, the sources said.

In the Mumbai case, FBI has interrogated Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested for the terror attacks. The US agency will also formally take the copy of the chargesheet filed by the Mumbai police in connection with the case and examine statements of the witnesses.

FBI, extending its support to the Indian investigators, said the team, which probed the terror strikes, would be recording its statements through video conferencing. India and the US share a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty which came into effect on December 3, 2005.

The Mumbai police had earlier obtained "crucial evidence" from FBI that points that the plot to execute the 26/11 terror attack was hatched in Pakistan. The evidence, ranging from details of the Voice Over Internet Protocol, satellite phones used by terrorists, exchange of emails, intercepts and forensic examination of bullets used by attackers and others, substantiates the links between the terrorists and their handlers in Pakistan.

The FBI had also helped in sharing evidences like call details made through VoIP and from the satellite phone besides getting the documents related to Global Positioning System used by the terrorists while sailing from Karachi.