Washington:
Determined to seek the extradition of Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley and access to him, India will raise the issue with US at the official-level during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's four-day visit to Washington.
National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, who is accompanying the Prime Minister, will raise the issue during his meeting with his counterpart Gen (Retd) James Jones. "We will keep pushing... This will be one of the issues... we will use every occasion to seek access (to David Headley)," sources said.
New Delhi's preference is extradition of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative as the crime was committed in India, they said. However, if it takes some time then India would like to have direct access to him through legal process so that it (the information provided by Headley) is admissible in courts in India, the sources said.
It was not certain whether Singh will raise the issue during his meeting with President Barack Obama at the Blair House on Sunday. Singh is here to attend the two-day Nuclear Summit.
India wants to interrogate David Coleman Headley, who has confessed to plotting the Mumbai carnage, to unravel the entire conspiracy. Headley had last month pleaded guilty to all terror charges before a US court on March 18.
Forty nine-year-old Headley, who faces six counts of conspiracy involving bombing public places in India, murdering and maiming persons in India and providing material support to foreign terrorist plots and LeT; and six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of US citizens in India, could have been sentenced to death if convicted.
After pleading guilty, he will now get a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
In his plea bargain with the US government, Headley has offered to be subjected to questioning by foreign investigators through deposition, video conferencing or Letters Rogatory.
"Extradition will be our preference because the crime has been committed in India," they said.
At the same time, the sources noted that India was still in the midst of legal processes with regard to seeking access to and extradition of Headley. Formal communication would be sent to the US after that.
India is keen to interrogate Headley in a way that is legally acceptable in a court in the country. "The interrogation should be legally usable and satisfy our legal processes," the sources said.