A sketch shows Tahawwur Rana in the federal court in Chicago on Tuesday. (AP)

New Delhi, June 10: India is expected to file a chargesheet against Tahawwur Rana, acquitted today by a US court of the charge of plotting the November 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai, and David Coleman Headley, who has confessed to his role in the 26/11 strike.

Rana and Headley were arrested in late 2009 in the US.

The verdict by the jury in a Chicago court, which accepted Rana’s role in a planned attack in Denmark and his support to Lashkar-e-Toiba but did not find him guilty in Mumbai, helps the ISI wriggle out of blame for 26/11.

Headley had in his testimony against Rana spoken of the ISI’s role in the terror attack that killed more than 160 people. Had Rana been convicted for 26/11, it would have been an indictment of the ISI as well. “That would have made the ISI squirm a bit,” a source close to home minister P. Chidambaram said.

“There was a split jury so we want to know more about it,” a source said, suggesting India was not ruling out the possibility that Pakistanis had tried to influence some jurors.

Defence attorneys spent much of their time trying to discredit Headley, who they claim duped his friend from a Pakistani boarding school. They said he implicated Rana because he wanted to make a deal with prosecutors to escape the death penalty and extradition to India.

But the prosecutors said Rana knew exactly what he was doing.

The home ministry said evidence was produced that Headley had told Rana he would be scouting potential targets in India; that he had obtained his consent to open an office of Rana’s immigration services business in Mumbai as a cover for his activities; that Rana advised Headley on how to obtain an Indian visa; and that the two had reviewed Headley’s surveillance of the targets.

Evidence was also produced that Rana told Headley the terrorists involved in Mumbai attacks should receive Pakistan’s highest military honour posthumously.

“We are, therefore, disappointed that Rana was acquitted on the count of conspiracy to provide material support to the Mumbai terrorist attacks,” secretary, internal security, U.K. Bansal, said.

However, the home ministry said it must be remembered that Rana was tried in a US court in accordance with US law. “Criminal trials in the US are jury trials and there are special rules governing such jury trials,” it said.

Indian authorities do not see the verdict making any difference to a trial in India. “I don’t see it as a setback because our case is still under investigation. In our handling of terrorism in India we don’t rely overly on prosecutions in other countries,” said Bansal.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), investigating the case against Headley, Rana and others, has sought certain documents and evidence produced in the US courts. It had been promised these “after the trial”.

Once it has seen the documents, the NIA will take a decision to file a chargesheet in an Indian court, Bansal said.

A Chidambaram aide suggested extradition would also be explored although it is a “complex issue”.

Home ministry officials said the verdict appeared to suggest there would be zero tolerance of any attempt by terrorists to disturb Europe or America or of Lashkar activity in the US. “However, when it comes to the Mumbai attacks, there will be a different yardstick,” an official said. Engaged deeply as it is in the Af-Pak region, officials believe the US may soft-pedal cases against the ISI.

While much of Headley’s testimony had been heard before, he did reveal a few new details. Among them was that another militant leader Ilyas Kashmiri, who US officials believed to be al Qaida’s military operations chief in Pakistan, had plotted to attack US defence contractor Lockheed Martin.

Kashmiri was reported killed on June 3 by US drone attacks inside Pakistan. While US officials haven’t confirmed the death, Pakistani officials say they’re certain Kashmiri is dead.