In a crucial development ahead of the extradition of 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind Tahawwur Hussain Rana, Delhi’s Patiala House Court has recalled trial records related to the case.
The move comes following an application by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which sought to retrieve these records from Mumbai, where they were earlier sent due to multiple cases linked to the attacks being pursued in both cities. The latest step raises the possibility of Rana’s prosecution taking place in Delhi.
Rana, a 64-year-old Pakistan-born Canadian national and close associate of Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, is accused of facilitating the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The US government has already approved his extradition to India, with former US President Donald Trump previously describing him as one of the world’s “very evil people.”
After completing a 14-year prison sentence in the US in 2023, Rana remains under supervised detention at a Los Angeles facility. His attempts to block extradition were thwarted when the US Supreme Court, on January 21, 2024, denied his petition challenging an earlier court order in favor of extradition.
Previously prosecuted in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Rana was convicted on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism in Denmark and supporting the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
India’s charges against Rana include conspiracy to wage war, murder, forgery, and committing a terrorist act. He has remained in custody throughout the extradition process. Despite his opposition, a US magistrate judge ruled on May 16, 2023, that Rana was extraditable. His subsequent legal challenge was rejected by the Ninth Circuit Court on August 15, 2024, clearing the way for his extradition to India.
(Inputs from ANI)