New Delhi:
Tahawwur Rana, an accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, is being brought to India in a special plane after he exhausted his legal options in the US, sources have said. The plane would need refuelling and is expected to touch down tonight or early tomorrow.
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.
The US jury had acquitted Rana of the charge of providing material support for the attacks, but he was found guilty of two other charges and sentenced to more than 10 years in prison. When his health started failing after the Covid pandemic, he was released from jail. He was rearrested for extradition to India. Rana then challenged the extradition plea, but exhausted his legal options.
