Headley's missing visa application form found

The original visa application form of Pakistani-origin terror-suspect David Coleman Headley, charged with criminal conspiracy in the Mumbai terror attacks, along with all the attached documents has been 'retrieved' from the record room of the Indian Consulate in Chicago, reliable sources said on Saturday.

Headley, a Chicago resident who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in October, made several trips to India to get videos and pictures of likely terrort targets in Mumbai at the behest of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.

His school friend, Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussein Rana, 49, had also been arrested on similar charges. Headley's original visa application form dated June 30, 2006 and all the documents submitted by him when he applied for his visa to India were retrieved on Friday, the sources said.

These documents had not been traceable so far from the stack of the visa documents dumped in the record room of the Indian Consulate in Chicago.

The External Affairs Ministry had ordered an inquiry into the matter. The original documents are being sent to India, the sources said. The visa application form was stamped on June 30, 2006.

Headley was subsequently given a business visa for one year. In 2007, his visa was renewed for five years. After his arrest by the FBI, Headley's visa was cancelled by the Indian government.