“Double agent” Headley visited Pune after 26/11

American terror suspect David Headley was a “double agent” of a US intelligence agency and carried out a recee of Raksha Bhavan, housing the Defence Ministry and National Defence Academy in Pune, according to a probe conducted into his activities by an Indian security agency.

49-year-old Headley was a “double agent” of the US intelligence agency and had also visited Pune after November 2008 Mumbai terror attack for which he had conducted a recce.

At present languishing in a jail in Chicago since October three last year, Headley had videographed a number of places in Pune including the Osho Ashram and National Defence Academy, during his visit to that city in March, 2009.

The information, shared by FBI during the meeting between security agencies and FBI chief Robert Muller, also showed that Headley was also collecting information about ‘Raksha Bhavan’. The US probe agency submitted fresh documents on Indian requests.

“The government is fully convinced that David Headley was a double agent. It has come to light that he visited Pune after 26/11 attack,” a senior government official, who did not wish to be identified, said.

Headley has been charged by the FBI with conspiracy of 26/11 terror strike in Mumbai amd Home Minister P Chidambaram, during his visit to Pune after a blast on February 13, had said that the government was still seeking access to Headley.

Security agencies have sought some more information from the FBI regarding interrogation of Headley. Security agencies in New Delhi have successfully trailed the movement of the American terror suspect within the country in a short span of time.

Will anyone dare audit the DRDO?

For a full 20 months now, the Defence Ministry has been sitting on two crucial recommendations of a committee on reforming defence procurement chaired by former Economic Advisor to the Finance Minister Vijay Kelkar. Not only have these not been made public, there’s been no action on any. It’s not difficult to understand why.

These two recommendations have to do with what is unspeakable at the Defence Research & Development Organisation: the need for an “independent audit” of its abysmal record of delay and waste in virtually all weapons programmes, as reported in the ongoing series in this newspaper.

Numbered 6.19 and 6.20 in the report, accessed by The Indian Express, the Kelkar panel, including scientists, officials of the three service chiefs and industry organisations, said that the Defence R&D Board, the apex review mechanism headed by the DRDO chief, should also include representatives from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

This, the Committee noted, was “in order to enable the Defence R&D Board to draw the expertise and experience from institutions falling outside the purview of defence.”

Second, the Kelkar Committee recommended that DRDO be periodically reviewed “for its functioning” by an independent high level committee and the first such review should be initiated in 2005. The reason: “DRDO has expanded considerably and tried to create in-house research facilities for all defence requirements. This, perhaps, is not a very cost-effective move…DRDO, as a research body has also not been reviewed by an external and independent group of experts”, a process the Kelkar Committee said would compel DRDO to “reform wherever necessary”.