India was never serious about extraditing 2008 Mumbai attacks conspirator David Coleman Headley, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative who was arrested by the United States, secret diplomatic communiques leaked by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks said.
According the U.S. cables dated December 2009, the then National Security Adviser M K Narayanan had told former U.S. ambassador to India Timothy Roemer that the Indian government's request for Headley's extradition was to merely pacify the public.
Speaking to Roemer on the telephone, Narayanan had apparently said that the Indian government would be "in the hot seat if it were seen as relinquishing extradition" of the man who had helped plan the 26/11 attack which left 166 people dead and over 300 wounded.
"He (Roemer) explained that the threat of extradition to India could cause Headley´s cooperation to dry up, but that allowing the US judicial process to unfold or securing a plea agreement that both reflects his overall culpability and ensures his continued cooperation would maximize our ability to obtain further information from Headley," the cable said.
