Government welcomes Headley's revelations

New Delhi

"Whatever revelations have come, all are good for the Government of India, security agencies and prosecution," Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told reporters when asked to comment on Headley's remarks on Ishrat.

In his testimony before a Mumbai court today, Headley reportedly said Ishrat, who was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2004 near Ahmedabad in Gujarat, was actually an operative of the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.

"His (Headley) revelations are giving right direction to the investigating agencies and prosecution. It is good for all of us," he said.

Rijiju, however, refused to disclose what steps the security and investigating agencies would take after Headley's testimony.

Testifying via video-link from the US, Headley spilled the beans on the 19-year-old girl from Mumbra near Mumbai and picked up her name when quizzed by Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam about a "botched up operation" mentioned to him (Headley) by LeT commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi.

Four persons Ishrat Jahan, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an encounter with Gujarat Police on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

The city crime branch had then said that those killed in the encounters were LeT terrorists and had landed in Gujarat to kill then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The CBI, which took over the probe from the Gujarat High Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), had filed a charge sheet in August 2013 saying that the encounter was fake and executed in joint operation by the city crime branch and Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB).