New York: In a major diplomatic win for India, the US Supreme Court approved the extradition of Tahawwur Rana—a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin—convicted for his role in 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, to India. Rana, 63, is sought by the Indian authorities.
He is currently lodged in a Los Angeles prison. The FBI arrested Rana from Chicago in 2009. According to reports, he is linked to Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, also known as ‘Daood Gilan.’ Headley is a key figure in the attacks and is accused of aiding him and others in Pakistan to support terror outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in carrying out the 2008 attacks on Mumbai. After becoming an approver in the case, Headley is serving a 35-year prison sentence in the US.
Tahawwur Rana’s appeal challenging the extradition has been dismissed. Rana had argued that he was tried and acquitted in federal court in the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago) in a case related to the Mumbai attacks.
In the plea, Rana had also stated that he could be sent to India for a second trial on the same charges and face the possibility of a conviction and death sentence. Earlier, he had approached the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco after losing legal battles in lower courts.
On December 16, US Solicitor General Elizabeth B Prelogar moved the Supreme Court to reject Rana’s petition. In the 2008 Mumbai attacks 166 people, including six Americans, were killed.
