Got money from ISI, David Headley finally admits

David Headley, who has been maintaining that he did not receive any money from Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), on Thursday for the first time accepted before the special court that he was given money by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and terror organisations.

Headley also admitted that his friend Tahawwur Hussain Rana was aware of his relations with the LeT and had left Mumbai on his advice so that he was not harmed during the attacks.

On the last date of hearing, when special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam asked Headley if he had received any money from ISI or LeT, he became annoyed and said that the claim was nonsense.

However, on Thursday when Mr Nikam about the money he had received on the basis of years and names, he accepted that he had received cash in Indian, Pakistani, US and even counterfeit currency from them. Answering questions by the prosecution, Headley said he had visited Reliance WebWorld, which is situated in Heera Panna, on four different occasions to communicate with Rana, Major Iqbal and other people via email. A register of Reliance WebWorld showed that he visited there on September 12 and 18, 2007 and October 18 and October 30, 2007. According to Headley, he also used coded language in the email for “deception”.

Headley accepted that he received Indian and Pakistani currencies, US dollars as well as counterfeit currencies from Major Iqbal of ISI and LeT and Rana from 2006 onwards and before the Mumbai attacks in 2008.

He said that before leaving for India, Major Iqbal had given him USD 25,000 and once he was given 40,000 Pakistani rupees from Sajid Mir of LeT. He also said he had received Rs 67,605 from Dr Rana and on other occasions like on November 7, 2006 when he was in Mumbai he received USD 500 from Dr Rana. Later, on November 30, 2006, he received Rs 17,636, on December 4, 2006 USD 1000. In April he again received Rs 2,000 from Major Iqbal and in June 2008 he received Rs 1,500 from Major Iqbal.

Also, Major Abdul Rehman Pasha, who was in the Pakistan army but joined Al-Qaeda later, had given him Rs 80,000.