In a major development, the US Supreme Court has paved the way for Pakistani-Canadian national and 26/11 attacks case accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana’s extradition to India where he will face trial in the Mumbai terror strikes case.
The US apex court early this week dismissed Rana’s review petition (writ of ‘certiorari’) filed on November 13, 2024 challenging his extradition to India. With the rejection of his petition, Rana has exhausted all his legal options to evade his extradition to India. Now, Rana’s extradition to India has become imminent.
In the past, Rana had lost similar pleas, both in US Court of Appeals in San Francisco and several federal courts, to be sent to India for prosecution of charges in the November 26-29, 2008 attacks case, in which 166 people were killed and 300 others injured.
During the hearing in his latest plea in December 2024, the US Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar had made a strong case for rejection of Rana’s review petition on the ground that the Lashkar-E-Taiba (LeT) operative was not entitled for relief from extradition to India.
A former medical officer in the Pakistani army, Rana had migrated to Canada in 1990 where he became a citizen before moving to Chicago. As per US law, if he is not extradited to India, he will be deported to his home country Canada after the completion of his prison term in 2027.
Rana is currently lodged in a Los Angeles prison for his involvement in plotting a terror attack on the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Rana had contended that he was tried and acquitted by a federal court in Illinois (Chicago) on the charges pertaining to the 26/11 case, for which India sought his extradition. However, Prelogar had strongly opposed Rana’s plea. Rana is accused of significant involvement in the 26/11 attacks case.
Ajmal Kasab was among the ten Pakistani terrorists who had carried out brazen attacks on Mumbai. While nine of the ten terrorists were killed by the security forces during the attack, the remaining one- Mohammed Ajmal Kasab - was caught alive by the police at Girgaum Chowpatty on the intervening night of November 26-27, 2008. After his conviction in the case, Kasab was hanged to death in the 26/11 attacks case in Pune’s Yerwada central prison on November 21, 2012.
Rana is one of the two masterminds who are yet to be brought to justice, while the other is Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, an Indian operative who worked for the Lashkar terror group. He was arrested in 2012 after being identified by Kasab and is currently behind the bars in Mumbai.
Welcoming the impending extradition to India, senior advocate Ujjwal Nikam, who was the Special Public Prosecutor in the 26/11 attacks case, said: “This is major success for India because the Supreme Court of America has dismissed the review petition of Tahawwur Rana. Tahawwur Rana and David Headley are the close links behind the terror attack of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. By extraditing Tahawwur Rana, India will get more information and evidence of the involvement of some of the Pakistani people, including the Pakistan security apparatus. I am very optimistic that the extradition of Tahawwur Rana will give more evidence about the involvement of some of the security apparatus of Pakistan,”
Rana is a close aide of the Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, who was also wanted by India for the 26/11 hit, carried out by 10 heavily armed Pakistan terrorists.
In an amended criminal complaint in the Illinois court against Headley and his accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana, on October 21, 2009, the FBI had given details about the reconnaissance done by Headley in India and his links with Rahul Bhatt, whom he (Headley) had befriended during his trips to India. Bhatt and his fitness instructor friend Vilas Pandurang Varak had subsequently confirmed having met Headley during his visits to India.
It may be recalled that on September 26, 2023, the Mumbai crime branch sleuths had filed a 405-page supplementary charge-sheet against Canadian businessman of Pakistani origin Dr. Tahawwur Hussain Rana based on fresh evidence against him.
Among other things, the supplementary charge-sheet had alleged that Rana had stayed in India for 11 days - from November 11, 2008 to November 22, 2008. Of these days, he spent two days in Mumbai, where he stayed at Hotel Renaissance at Powai.
In its charge-sheet submitted before the trial court, the crime branch police had added Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) section 39A (offence relating to support given to a terrorist organisation) against Rana in the case.”We have gathered some fresh evidence against Rana in the form of statements and documents,” a senior crime branch officer said.
In its charge-sheet, the Mumbai police officials had said that they had found several documents which indicated that Rana was not only a co-conspirator along with incarcerated Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, but that he actively participated in the conspiracy behind the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai. He had helped Headley get an Indian tourist visa based on fake documents, that allegedly provided logistical support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba for the 26/11 attacks and that there was evidence in the form of an email sent by Headley to Rana.
At the time of filing a supplementary charge-sheet against Rana, Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said that he would present before the court some “incriminating material’’ the crime branch had gathered during its investigation against the accused, and seek a non-bailable warrant against him. He said he had a “catalogue of evidence’’ against Rana whose name was first revealed by the US national David Headley.
Headley, who was the 26/11 conspirator in the 26/11 terror strike case, had turned an approver in the trial of key 26/11 conspirator Zaibuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal trial in December 2015 after the Mumbai court pardoned him in the case,
In May 2023, the Magistrate Judge, US District Court of California, Judge Jacqueline Chooljian had ordered the extradition of Rana in the 26/11 attacks case. However, another US court on August 18 stayed the extradition of Rana. “The extradition of Rana to India is stayed pending the conclusion of his appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit,” Judge Fischer had said in the order issued on August 18, 2023.