If the grilling fails, can grilled chicken do it?

During the trial of Ajmal Kasab, the lone 26/11 gunman caught alive and hanged, public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam had tried to stir up public emotions by claiming the accused was being served chicken biryani in jail. He later admitted this was false.

Tahawwur Rana, whose ground-floor lockup at the eight-storey NIA headquarters in Lodhi Road boasts creature comforts like central air-conditioning, might be luckier than Kasab gastronomically too, an NIA official suggested.

“We usually serve dal, roti and sabzi… but in exceptional cases we do consider the food preferences of high-profile accused,” he said. “We need to keep him in good humour to extract a confession.”

The official would not say whether Rana was already getting food of his choice.

Sources said the 64-year-old Rana, accused of helping plot the 2008 Mumbai attacks, has been kept in a 14ftx14ft cell equipped with CCTV cameras, a bed and an attached toilet. He is under round-the-clock surveillance.

NIA deputy inspector-general Jaya Roy, also the chief investigating officer, is leading Rana’s interrogation.

“He is being interrogated by the NIA and the spy agencies — the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing,” an NIA official said.

“Multiple layers of digital security have been put in place, as well as a retinue of 24-hour guards. Only 12 NIA officials are allowed to enter the cell.”

Sources said Rana was being questioned about his personal and family backgrounds, the 26/11 attacks, and his suspected links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI.

Nearly 100 policemen, aided by a team of sniffer dogs, are guarding the NIA headquarters from the outside while paramilitary forces are in charge of security inside the building. The road opposite has been barricaded.

Sources said four NIA officials are constantly monitoring Rana through the security cameras inside the lockup.

The agency headquarters is equipped with an observation room with a one-way mirror that allows senior officers to watch and listen to the questioning going on in any of the four sound-proof interrogation rooms.

Following his extradition from the US and arrival in Delhi on Thursday evening, Rana was brought to the NIA headquarters early on Friday morning after a Delhi court, during a night hearing, remanded him in NIA custody for 18 days.

The court directed the agency to conduct a medical examination on Rana every 24 hours, and to allow him to meet his lawyer every other day.

“Rana will remain in NIA custody for 18 days, during which the agency will question him in detail in order to unravel the complete conspiracy behind the deadly 2008 attacks, in which a total of 166 persons were killed and over 238 injured,” an NIA statement said.

Sources said the interrogation was focused mainly on unearthing Pakistan’s role in 26/11, with Rana being grilled on his links with Lashkar, blamed for the attacks.

“Rana, a close associate of the Mumbai attack mastermind, David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani, will also be questioned on his suspected links with ISI officials and his exact role in the attack,” a security official attached to the Union home ministry said.

The investigators also hope to obtain leads on Rana’s travels in India in the fortnight leading to the November26-29 carnage in Mumbai, and his possible plans to target other cities.

Rana is charged with offences including conspiracy, murder, forgery, the commission of a terrorist act, and waging war on the Indian government.

Officials said the NIA’s investigations have implicated leaders of Pakistani terrorist groups such as the Lashkar and the Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami, among them Hafiz Muhammad Saeed alias Tayyaji, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Sajjid Majid alias Wasi, Illyas Kashmiri, and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed alias Major Abdurrehman alias Pasha.

They allegedly worked in close coordination with ISI officials, namely, Major Iqbal alias Major Ali and Major Sameer Ali alias Major Samir.