26/11: Crime Branch team to go to US, meet FBI

New Delhi: A three-member team of the Mumbai Crime Branch may fly to the US for an interaction session with the FBI.

According to sources, the Mumbai Crime Branch has sent a proposal to the State Home Department seeking permission to send its core investigators to the US.

The names of the proposed officers are Additional Commissioner of Police Deven Bharati, Senior Police Inspector Arun Chavhan and Police inspector Dinesh Kadam. The team will co-ordinate and exchange notes with the FBI on the 26/11 attack investigations.

The team will stay there for nearly a week. "The basic idea behind the visit is to share information on 26/11 investigation. Secondly, we also want to learn about the security measures that the US adopted after 9/11," an official said.

Sources say the three selected officers have applied for white passports (meant for Government officials on duty) and that their applications are being processed.

This will be the second time that the Mumbai police will visit a foreign country to share probe information.

Earlier in 2003, two teams led by former police commissioner M N Singh and then joint commissioner Bhujangrao Mohite and including former deputy commissioner of police Pradeep Sawant, assistant commissioner Ramakant Padwal and inspector Dilip Patil, visited the UK and Australia over the investigation of the alleged al-Qaeda link of Trombay resident Mohammed Afroz.