tahawwur-rana-to-be-extradited-to-india-shortly-sources

Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana is expected to be extradited to India from the US “shortly”, sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) have said. He is expected to be brought back to India late on Wednesday night or early on Thursday.

 

According to government sources in India, a team comprising officers from the National Investigation Centre (NIA) and Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) from India has gone to the US on a chartered flight, which will also be used to bring Rana to India, for security reasons and all paperwork and legalities are being completed with US authorities.

 

Preparations are already underway to receive the high-profile 26/11 terror accused. Security arrangements have been intensified in multiple jails across Delhi and Mumbai, where Rana may be lodged after his arrival. Initially, he is expected to be held in the custody of the NIA for intensive interrogation lasting several weeks.

 

MHA sources said Rana could be kept in Tihar Jail amid high security. Arrangements have also been made in a Mumbai prison for his security where he could face trial soon.

 

Top-level coordination between National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs has ensured that all necessary arrangements for Rana’s extradition and custody are in place.

 

“Once in India, Rana will be formally arrested by Indian authorities and presented in court. The NIA will spearhead the investigation and prosecution process, which is expected to shed more light on the international dimensions of the 26/11 conspiracy,” said an officials of the MHA.

 

The hugely significant development comes just days after Rana’s last-resort attempt to evade extradition to India failed after the US Supreme Court justices denied his application, moving him closer to being handed over to Indian authorities to face justice in the dastardly attacks.

 

Rana, 64, currently lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, had submitted an ‘Emergency Application For Stay Pending Litigation of Petition For Writ of Habeas Corpus' on February 27, 2025 with Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit Elena Kagan.

 

Kagan had denied the application earlier last month.

 

Rana had then renewed his ‘Emergency Application for Stay Pending Litigation of Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus previously addressed to Justice Kagan’, and requested that the renewed application be directed to US Chief Justice John Roberts.

 

 An order on the Supreme Court website noted that Rana’s renewed application had been “distributed for Conference” on April 4 and the “application” has been “referred to the Court.” A notice on the Supreme Court website Monday said that “Application denied by the Court.” New York-based Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra had told the media that Rana had made his application to the Supreme Court to prevent extradition, which Justice Kagan denied on March 6th. The application was then submitted before Roberts, “who has shared it with the Court to conference so as to harness the entire Court’s view.”

 

The Supreme Court justices are Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice Samuel A Alito, Jr, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil M Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett M Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

 

In his emergency application, Rana had sought a stay of his extradition and surrender to India pending litigation (including exhaustion of all appeals) on the merits of his February 13.

 

In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates US law and the UN Convention Against Torture "because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, the petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture." “The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks,” the application said.

 

The application also said that his “severe medical conditions” render extradition to Indian detention facilities a “de facto" death sentence in this case. It cited medical records from July 2024 that confirm Rana has multiple “acute and life-threatening diagnoses”, including multiple documented heart attacks, Parkinson’s disease with cognitive decline, a mass suggestive of bladder cancer, stage 3 chronic kidney disease, and a history of chronic asthma, and multiple COVID-19 infections.

 

“Accordingly, petitioner certainly has raised a credible, if not compelling, factual case that there are indeed substantial grounds for believing he would be in danger of torture if surrendered to Indian authorities.  "Further, because of his Muslim religion, his Pakistani origin, his status as a former member of the Pakistani Army, the relation of the putative charges to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and his chronic health conditions he is even more likely to be tortured than otherwise would be the case, and that torture is very likely to kill him in short order.” Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, another Pakistani-American terrorist who conducted reconnaissance missions in Mumbai ahead of the attacks.

 

Rana is accused of playing a crucial role in the planning and facilitation of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, which left 166 people dead and over 300 injured. Investigative agencies have also linked Rana to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned terrorist organization responsible for orchestrating the attacks. His extradition has been a long-pending demand from New Delhi, and India has repeatedly pushed for it through diplomatic and legal channels.

 

During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House in February, President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Rana "to face justice in India”.

 

A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations in Mumbai.