Pune blast revokes Jaipurites' fears about Headley's visit

15 Feb 2010-JAIPUR: The Saturday blast in Pune has raised several questions and revoked the fears of residents of the cities that David Coleman Headley reportedly visited, the list including Jaipur and Pushkar as well. Though, the local investigation team had initiated an inquiry into the matter, anything concrete about his Jaipur visit is yet to be ascertained and doubts over Headley's intentions have surfaced again.
Senior police officials told TOI that though his stay in Pushkar has been confirmed by National Investigation Agency (NIA), his stay in Jaipur and his motive behind it is yet to be ascertained. Headley had visited Pushkar and Jaipur for recce of Israeli tourists and the places where they frequently visit. The Israeli tourists were reportedly on Headley's target.
"We received a tip-off from NIA that Headley might have gone from Pushkar to Mumbai via Jaipur. After searching the records of hotels and other places in Jaipur, we have yet not come across anything that suggests that Headley had stayed here," said a senior police officer.
After 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, Headley visited Pushkar a couple of times and spent about a month there. The NIA team, which had visited Pushkar in December last year while probing the matter, had said that Headley stayed in Hotel Oasis on March 11 and 12, 2009 near Bed-Khabad. They also confirmed he had taken a room facing the road where the Jewish prayer hall is located.
During the investigation it surfaced that he had gone to Mumbai via Jaipur and might have conducted recce of some places here as well. But after two months of investigation, the police officials said that no evidence regarding this has come up so far. "Earlier, NIA has suspected that he could have stayed in a hotel or an inn in Jaipur for a few days. It might be possible, but our investigation has yet not suggested anything like that," said a police officer.                                                                                                                                  As in Pune blast, it has been confirmed that Headley had conducted recce of places where the blast took place, the questions regarding Headley's stay in Pushkar and Jaipur are once again haunting Rajasthan police. DGP, Rajasthan, Harish Chandra Meena told TOI that Headley's movements in Rajasthan are being considered very sensitive. "We are doing our best to help NIA, the agency which is probing the matter," said DGP Meena.