26/11 Accused Tahawwur Rana’s Runs Out Of Legal Options, Extradition Soon
Tahawwur Rana, an accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, has exhausted his legal options in the US and is likely to be extradited to India soon, sources have said. A multi-agency team from India is coordinating with authorities in the US and necessary paperwork and legal formalities are being completed.
This comes after the US Supreme Court rejected Rana’s petition, requesting a stay on his extradition to India. “The application for stay addressed to The Chief Justice and referred to the Court is denied,” the Supreme Court order on Monday said.
The US Supreme Court had denied a similar request in March. Rana had earlier told the US court that he was suffering from an abdominal aortic aneurysm at immediate risk of rupture, Parkinson’s disease with cognitive decline, and a mass suggestive of bladder cancer. He had said he would not survive long enough to be tried in India. He had also alleged that he would be targeted in India due to national, religious, and cultural animosity.
In February, US President Donald Trump met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and announced in a joint press conference that Tahawwur Rana would face justice in India.
Rana is an associate of Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the key conspirators of the November 26 attacks in Mumbai in 2008. He is a Pakistani-origin businessman, physician, and immigration entrepreneur. He is learnt to have connections with terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, also known as ISI.
