Another hurdle crossed, India in touch with US for extradition of 26/11 plotter Rana

New Delhi expects that Rana, the key accomplice of the 26/11 plotter David Headley, would be extradited to India when he would exhaust all his legal options in the US.

New Delhi: The government is in touch with President Joe Biden’s administration in Washington DC for early extradition of Tahawwur Rana from the United States, where a court has ruled that the Pakistani-Canadian businessman can be sent to India to stand trial for his role in the November 26-28, 2008, carnage in Mumbai.

New Delhi expects that Rana, the key accomplice of the 26/11 plotter David Headley, would be extradited to India when he would exhaust all his legal options, sources told DH on Saturday.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on August 15 that Rana could be sent to India in accordance with the extradition treaty the two nations signed on June 25, 1997.

Rana’s extradition to India had been approved by Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian of the US District Court of the Central District of California on May 16, 2023.

He had then moved a habeas corpus petition challenging the order of the magistrate, arguing that the Non Bis in Idem (double jeopardy) exemption provision of the bilateral extradition treaty had given him protection from any move by the US government to send him to India. He had also argued that India had not provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate probable cause that he had committed the charged crimes.

After his habeas corpus petition had also been denied, Rana had moved to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which earlier this week affirmed the District Court in the Central District of California’s order.

A panel of three judges – Milan D Smith, Bridget S Bade, and Sidney A Fitzwater – of the Court of Appeals rejected the argument of Rana, observing that Non Bis in Idem exception would not apply because the charges India brought against him in the extradition request contained elements distinct from the crimes for which he had been previously acquitted in the US. The judges of the Courts of Appeal also held that India had provided sufficient competent evidence to support the magistrate judge’s finding of probable cause that he had committed the charged crimes.

The 61-year-old, who is now lodged in a jail in Los Angeles, could also get a chance to move to the US Supreme Court only if he could convince the apex court that it should determine a question of legal principle arising out of the orders of the lower courts. Once he exhausts all his legal options, the Secretary of State, on behalf of the US government, will decide whether he should be extradited to India, officials aware of the process told DH in New Delhi.

Rana had been running an immigration service providing business in Chicago. He had been accused of allowing Headley to open an office of his company in Mumbai in 2006 and to use the cover for scouting targets in the city for the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba's November 26-28, 2008, terrorist attacks.

Altogether 166 people, including six citizens of the US, had been killed in the three-day-carnage carried out by a gang of 10 LeT terrorists, who had sailed from Karachi in Pakistan to the financial capital of India.

A few weeks before the attacks in Mumbai, Rana and Headley had been arrested in Chicago for allegedly plotting a terrorist attack in Denmark. The role of the duo in the 26/11 carnage in the financial capital of India had come to light during the subsequent investigation.

Headley had been sentenced to a 35-year jail term in the US for his role in the terrorist attack in India. Rana had been convicted of providing support to Headley and the LeT and for his role in plotting an attack against a newspaper in Denmark. The US court, however, had not convicted him of direct involvement in the attacks in Mumbai. He had been sentenced to 14 years in prison in the US in 2013. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India however continued to pursue the case against him for his alleged role in hatching the conspiracy for the 26/11 carnage.

Rana had been released from jail in the US on compassionate grounds after he had tested positive for the Covid-19 in early 2020. He had been detained by the US authorities again after the NIA in June 2020 had requested for his extradition to India.