New Delhi: Delhi Police on Tuesday conducted extensive searches at cyber cafes in Paharganj area of central Delhi and identified two internet cafes used by suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative David Headley during his three-day stay Delhi in March 2009, police sources said.
"Extensive search was carried out in the cyber cafes. Of the many cyber cafes, two were found to have been used by Headley. He transferred some documents via internet from these cafes," a police source said.
The two cyber cafes have been identified as Kesri cyber cafe and Starview cafe in the Paharganj area, according to police sources.
"Headley visited the Starview cyber cafe on March 9 and 10 for 55 minutes and 45 minutes respectively. Delhi Police have taken the hard disks of both computers used by him. They have also taken the register maintained by the cafe," police sources said.
"The cafe had a copy of the passport which also has been taken by the police. The hard disks would be analysed to find out if any document or photo were transferred by him via Internet. They are also trying to find out the details of the websites he visited during that time," the police sources added.
The Delhi Police are reported to have provided the details to National Investigation Agency (NIA).
However, police declined to comment on whether these searches were in connection with Headley, who was arrested in the US last month. He had stayed in two hotels in Paharganj for three days.
Police reportedly had sought details from the owners of the cyber cafes, hotels and telephone booths about their customers during March 1-15 this year.
Headley and his alleged accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin, were arrested in the US last month by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI later informed the Indian intelligence agencies that the two were plotting terror attacks against India and the National Defence College in New Delhi was on their hit list.
However, when asked for confirmation about the police searches in Paharganj apparently in the Headley case, a Delhi Police officer said: "It is a routine affair. We regularly check the details of their customers as it (Paharganj) is a favourite among foreign tourists."
The NIA has registered a case against Headley and Rana and has started probing their connection with last year's terror attacks in India, including the 26/11 Mumbai carnage.
Security agencies in India went into a tizzy after it was known that Headley, who visited India nine times over a three-year period since 2006, was planning major terror strikes in the country on behalf of the LeT.
Headley is said to have operated a visa agency in Mumbai for almost two years until July 2008 and had travelled to various Indian cities, including Jaipur, Delhi and Bangalore, which were rattled by bomb blasts in 2008.
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