NIA has sent a fresh request to Moroccan authorities for recording the statement of Faiza Outalha mainly pertaining to her knowledge about her estranged husband David Headley’s association with Lashker-e-Toiba terror group, a move which is apparently aimed at unravelling the role of state actors in Pakistan in 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

The development came after the Moroccan authorities, while executing a Letters Rogatory (LR) sent by the NIA in 2012 after many months, had sent a statement of Outalha recorded by the law enforcing agencies of that country.

It, however, did not address many concerns of the NIA, which has registered a case in 2009 to probe the activities of Headley in India, official sources said.

According to the sources, the NIA sent a fresh request requesting the Moroccan authorities to allow a team of the NIA to question Outalha in person so that the role of two Pakistani army majors and Lashker terrorists Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi is further ascertained.

The fresh request has been with a French Translation as the Government of Morocco had returned previous requests asking for a translation of the documents as per the rule of the requested country, they said. French is generally used by the Moroccan government for international diplomacy.

In the absence of any Mutual Assistance Legal Treaty between India and Morocco, the LR has been issued on the basis of “Assurance of Reciprocity”, thereby promising the African country of all assistance in any legal cases in future.

Outalha had visited India twice and was used by Headley, a US national of Pakistani origin, while carrying out a reconnaissance mission at Hotel Taj Mahal in Mumbai where she was ostensibly on a visit.

As the US authorities are sitting on India’s request for questioning Headley, who is at present undergoing a prison term of 35 years in Chicago, the NIA hopes that the statement of the Moroccan lady will help in completing the jigsaw about role of ISI officials, the sources said.

NIA, which was handed over the task to probe the activities of Headley, has already filed chargesheet against Headley, his Canadian-Pakistani born Tahawuur Rana, Saeed, Lakhvi and five others including two army majors believed to be working for Pakistan’s ISI.

India has already secured an Interpol Red Corner Notice against two Pakistan Army officials — Major Iqbal and Major Samir Ali — believed to be working for ISI and were instrumental in training of Headley.

During her stay in Pakistan, Outalha had met Saeed and complained about Headley to him. She had also gone to the US embassy in Islamabad to complain about the America-born terrorist and his role in terror groups like LeT and Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami, the sources said.

Outalha, who married 52-year-old Headley in February 2007 and divorced him a year later, had been able to give security agencies an insight into the personal life of Headley which included connections he had in Mumbai.

The idol of a famous temple dedicated to the ruling deity of Saturn was purified on Sunday after a woman broke a long-held tradition which bars females from entering the sanctum sanctorum of the Hindu place of worship in Maharashtra.

However, the unidentified woman found support from political leaders and rationalists who said that her defiant act on Saturday reflected the changing times in a country where gender bias is rampant in many parts.

Besides women, many places of worship in India also bar people from the so-called lower-castes from entering the sanctum sanctorum.

The temple dedicated to ‘Shani’ is located at Shingnapur, a town of 4,000 in Ahmednagar district and around 330 km northeast of Mumbai, where no house has doors but only the frames as entrances.

It is believed that the ruling deity of the town – where even the police station doesn’t have any doors — punishes anyone involved in theft and robberies.

“It’s a long-held tradition at our village that women are allowed only till few meters from the Shani idol. We have never prevented women from offering prayers but they are not allowed on the platform (where the idol is placed),” said Sayram Bankar, president of the temple trust.

Villagers said the woman at the centre of the storm jumped over the barricade, offered prayers and then disappeared into the large crowd.

While justifying the milk ‘abhishek’ to purify the idol – a five-feet-tall slab of black rock — Bankar said it was done to “respect the sentiments of villagers” who were unhappy over the way the woman touched the idol.

“As part of the penance, I have also offered to resign,” said Bankar.

Women of the village, interviewed by local television channels, also protested the violation of the tradition.

“Ours is a peaceful village where devotees throng in large number and follow tradition. What the woman did was not proper,” an unidentified woman in her sixties was quoted as saying.

Congress MLA Praniti Shinde – daughter of former Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde – said the woman “should be felicitated for doing what she did” and also promised to raise the issue in the winter session of the state assembly beginning in Nagpur next month.

Ranjanan Gavande, member of an organisation fighting for eradication of blind faith, termed the incident “revolutionary”.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has assured to find an answer to the long-pending issue of rehabilitation of the project-affected persons (PAP) of the Barvi dam in Badlapur.

Fadnavis met Murbad MLA Kisan Kathore on his visit to the district on Friday who apprised him of the need to resolve the issue on priority.

The Chief Minister said he would convene a meeting of Commissioners and Mayors of the civic bodies and the senior officials of departments concerned in this regard.

The height of the Barvi dam was increased from 38.10 metres to 66.50 metres in 1999. The proposed move to raise this further to 72 m hit a roadblock due to opposition from villagers.

Around 750 residents of the six villages around the dam would be displaced in accordance with the plan. They have pressed for their demand of a government job to one member of each family, besides monetary compensation.

Kathore said that each of the beneficiary civic bodies can give employment to the affected families. Some of them could be employed by the MIDC and other government departments. This needs to be sorted out on priority basis, he added.

State Industries Minister Subhash Desai, too, visited the dam site on Friday and chaired a meeting with some of the project-affected villagers, Ambernath MLA Dr Balaji Kinikar, and MIDC CEO Bhushan Gagrani. He assured to take up the matter with the Chief Minister.

The dam, which was constructed in 1972, supplies water to Thane and surrounding areas. The storage capacity of the dam, which originally stood at 122.58 MCM and was later increased to 174 MCM, is to be raised to 347 MCM, Kathore said.

Kathore informed the Chief Minister that the dam would fulfill the drinking water requirement of the civic corporations of Thane, Bhiwandi, Mira-Bhayander, Ulhasnagar, Navi Mumbai, etc.

These cities are already facing water cuts and the water shortage issue is sure to escalate if the problem is not solved at the earliest, he said.