KT NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, Dec 15: Union Home Ministry has asked the Maharashtra government to get an in-camera judicial confession of Ajmal Amir Iman aka Qasab, the lone surviving terrorist from among those who mounted the Mumbai attack, before a magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC that can be legally valid for pursuing the case in the courts.
Once his confession is recorded, the government will consider the demand of the foreign governments to allow their agencies to independently interrogate him, the sources said, referring to the demand made by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Sunday to let his Scotland Yard sleuths talk to him.
The sources said India is open to questioning of Qasab by the foreign agencies like Scotland Yard and FBI, but not immediately as it may impinge upon the ongoing investigations by the Mumbai Police.
First his confession be recorded before a court and then the foreign agencies will be given an access to him as that will help further nailing Pakistan, the sources said.
They said the government already has an hour-longed video-taped confession of Qasab, copies of which have been provided to the US and the UK and also presented before the United Nations Security Council to get its fiat issued to Pakistan.
The video tape, however, has no legal value and hence the need to record the confession before a magistrate, the sources said.
Though the government has not provided this confessional evidence to Pakistan so far, the sources said it must have, however, already reached Islamabad through the international interlocutors as also from its representative in the United Nations where the video tape is available.
They said the government will be, however, forwarding the confession that Qasab makes before the court to Pakistan.
The sources said the External Affairs Ministry would be forwarding a lengthy letter written by Qasab to the Pakistan High Commission and also urge upon it to take the custody of the bodies of the nine other terrorists lying in the JJ Hospital mortuary in Mumbai., the sources added.
Sources here also said that the American FBI and other western investigating agencies have already taken DNA samples of all the nine militants killed in the attacks to ascertain if they had any Afghan or other terror links as the probe found that the nature of explosive devices was quite similar to those used in Afghanistan.
Sources associated with the investigation said the DNA samples had been preserved by Indian as well as western investigators who were ascertaining whether it matched with anyone in their data bank of terrorists or if they were related to militants killed during operations in Afghanistan.
The western investigators have also carried out a detailed examination of the explosive devices used in the attacks that left over 180 people dead and have found some similarities with those used by terrorists in Afghanistan, the sources said.
The FBI team accompanied by investigators from the UK's Scotland Yard was camping in Mumbai for a fortnight looking into clues including the Internet telephony signatures intercepted by the Indian intelligence agencies when terrorists were receiving calls.
Sources here further said that the FBI team, which came here on December 1, after registering the case, had been able to break into the code of Internet telephony.
As per the US laws, the FBI has to probe the death or torture of any American citizen outside the US and later submit a charge sheet.
In this case, they had also sought the interrogation report of Mohammad Ajmal Amir, the lone terrorist arrested by the police in the Mumbai attacks.
The investigators have also found that the connection for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service brought from Orlando, Florida in the US was being used by the 10 terrorists to remain in touch.
The technology enables a person to make and receive phone calls through the Internet.
The investigators were also focusing on a Gulf-based operator of satellite service, which was also being used by terrorists.
