Headley refuses to answer questions about wife

Mumbai, March 23: Deposing in the 2008 Mumbai attacks case, Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley today refused to answer questions about his wife Shazia to whom he had disclosed about his links with Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).

"Shazia is still my legally wedded wife. I do not want to disclose Shazia's location at present. I do not want to answer any question about my wife Shazia," he said. He said his wife never visited India and that he had disclosed to her about his association with LeT.

"Shazia never visited India. Originally she's from Pakistan. I had told Shazia about my association with LeT. I don't remember when I disclosed this to her, at least not immediately."

Headley's cross-examination by Abdul Wahab Khan, the lawyer of Abu Jundal, an alleged key plotter of the 2008 terror attack, began this morning in the court of Mumbai sessions judge G A Sanap, via video link from the US.

When Khan asked Headley what was Shazia's reaction to this disclosure, he said, "Her reaction to this is between me and her. It is our personal relation. I don't want to disclose whether she objected or not or what she said.

I am not going to share what happened between me and my wife." The 55-year-old terrorist, who has turned approver in the 26/11 case, had earlier concluded his week-long deposition before the Mumbai sessions court through a video-link from the US on February 13.

Headley, who is serving a 35-year jail term in the US, said in his earlier deposition how Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI provides "financial, military and moral support" to terror outfits LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen, and how LeT planned and executed the 26/11 Mumbai attack.

He had also claimed that Ishrat Jahan, killed in an allegedly fake encounter in Gujarat, was an LeT operative.

PTI