After a panel of the US Court of Appeals cleared the way to extradite the Mumbai terror attack convict Tahawwur Rana to India earlier this month, the US Supreme Court has approved Rana’s extradition to India. The Court dismissed a review petition filed by Rana against his conviction clearing the way to extradite him to India. The decision finally paved the way for his extradition to India after he unsuccessfully moved several federal courts in the US including the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. India has been seeking the extradition of Rana who is wanted in connection with the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks.
Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin, filed a writ of certiorari with the US Supreme Court on November 13 last year. The Supreme Court rejected his petition on January 21, 2025, a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. He is currently lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles.
The US government argued for Rana’s extradition to India
Last year in December, the US government had opposed Rana’s petition before the Supreme Court. The US Solicitor General Elizabeth B Prelogar submitted a filing in the Supreme Court on December 16, 2024, arguing that Rana was not entitled to relief from extradition to India. Rana contended before the Supreme Court that he had already been tried and acquitted by a federal court in Illinois for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
Disagreeing with his contention, Prelogar said that the forgery charges against him in India including submission of false information to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) when applying to open a branch office of the Immigration Law Centre, were not covered by the US prosecution. Preloger argued that the verdict in the US case, involving conspiracy charges, was difficult to interpret and did not automatically imply that Rana had been convicted or acquitted of all the specific conduct he was charged with in India. She further added that the jury’s verdict in the US trial, which involved conspiracy charges, was unclear in terms of addressing all the specific actions India had charged him with.
Why it took so long
Tahawwur Rana had been making all possible efforts to prevent himself from being extradited to India where he will be facing charges for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. He unsuccessfully approached several lower and federal courts seeking relief. On November 13, he filed a petition with the US Supreme Court seeking a review of the lower court’s ruling against his plea.
He was convicted in the US for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and was imprisoned for over 10 years for supporting terrorist groups and planning the attack. In August last year, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stated that Tahawwur Rana is “extraditable to India” under the extradition treaty between India and the US.
The panel of the US Court of Appeals held that the Non-Bis in Idem (not twice in the same) exception did not apply in Rana’s case because the Indian charges contained distinct elements from the crimes for which he was acquitted in the United States. It also upheld the district court’s denial of Tahawwur Hussain Rana’s habeas corpus petition, which challenged a magistrate judge’s certification of Rana as extraditable to India for his suspected role in terrorist attacks in Mumbai. This was Rana’s last available legal opportunity to prevent his extradition to India.
Charges against Rana in India
The National Investigation Agency is investigating Rana’s involvement in the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008. Rana received an international arrest warrant, and the NIA submitted a charge sheet. His involvement in the 26/11 terror attack is linked with his association with David Headley, the Pakistani-American LeT operative who played a key role in planning the attack including gathering intelligence and conducting reconnaissance.
Tahawwur Rana had allowed David Headley to use the cover of First World Immigration Services to establish a branch in India for reconnaissance purposes.
Apart from being implicated in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Tahawwur Ranais also wanted for his alleged involvement in plotting attacks on the National Defence College and Chabad House, a Jewish outreach center in Mumbai. He is also accused of aiding a plan to target a Danish newspaper over cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, a plot involving David Headley.
