The US Supreme Court has cleared Mumbai-attack convict Tahawwur Rana’s extradition to India as it dismissed a review petition against his conviction in the case.
India was seeking the extradition of Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, as he was wanted in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks case.
This was Rana’s last legal chance not to be extradited to India. Earlier, he lost a legal battle in several federal courts, including the US Court of Appeals for the North Circuit in San Francisco.
26/11 Mumbai terror attack case | Tahawwur Hussain Rana has been denied a petition of writ of certiorari. The writ had been filed in November 2024 against an earlier order of a lower court that had ruled in favour of his extradition to India.
— ANI (@ANI) January 25, 2025
A writ of certiorari is a legal… pic.twitter.com/2J7fInsgE3
On November 13, Rana filed a “petition for a writ of certiorari” before the US Supreme Court. This was denied by the apex court on January 21, a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as the American President.
“Petition DENIED,” the Supreme Court said.
Rana is currently detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles.
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Rana, a childhood friend of David Coleman Headley, was re-arrested on June 10 last year in Los Angeles on an extradition request by India for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed. He is a declared fugitive in India.
In August last year, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Rana was “extraditable to India” citing the extradition treaty between two countries.
Rana along with Headley planned the Mumbai terror attack. The Pakistan-origin businessman is accused of assisting terrorists with reconnaissance efforts. The Mumbai Police named Rana in its comprehensive 405-page chargesheet as an operative for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) having links with terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Notably, Rana was convicted in Chicago in 2011 of providing material support to LeT, which planned the Mumbai terror attack and for supporting a never-carried-out plot to attack a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed in 2005.
