The Maharashtra Police alleged in a supplementary chargesheet on Monday that Tahawwur Rana, one of the accused persons in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case, stayed at a hotel in the city days tragedy, reported The Indian Express.
Rana is a Pakistan-origin Canadian businessman who is currently lodged in a jail in Los Angeles in the United States for his involvement in a terror attack on the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen in 2010.
The Mumbai Police have booked Rana under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, sections of the Indian Penal Code and Explosives Act among others.
In May, the US had approved his extradition to India in connection with the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case. However, Rana had appealed against the order and sought a stay till his appeal is heard, reported The Indian Express. The appeal was granted last month.
The supplementary chargesheet filed by Maharashtra Police contains a scanned copy of Rana’s passport and other documents that he had provided to the hotel in Powai area of Mumbai, where he stayed from November 11 to November 21, 2008, to prove that he left the country five days before the attacks, reported the newspaper.
On November 26, 2008, 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists took a sea route from Pakistan to Mumbai and carried out a dozen coordinated shooting and bombing attacks at various major landmarks across the city. The attacks resulted in the deaths of 166 persons, including 26 foreigners.
After leaving Mumbai, Rana went to Dubai and then travelled to China and eventually headed to Chicago, the chargesheet said.
The police have also alleged that Rana conspired with his childhood friend David Coleman Headley to assist the Lashkar-e-Taiba in planning the attack. Headley is currently serving a 35-year prison term in the US for his role in the attack.
“He is the person who helped Headley get an Indian tourist visa on fake documents,” Joint Commissioner of police Lakhmi Gautam told the Hindustan Times. Rana also allegedly provided logistical support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attacks.
This is in line with an earlier allegation made by the US prosecutors in the extradition case saying that Rana’s immigration law centre in Chicago, as well as a branch office in Mumbai, was used as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba’s terrorism activities between 2006 and 2008.
The chargesheet submitted on Monday also includes emails sent by Headley to Rana pertaining to the terror attacks.
“In one mail, he asks Rana what is to be done about Shiv Sena worker Rajaram Rege, whose help Headley had sought by claiming to be a tourist,” an unidentified senior police officer told The Indian Express. In the second email, Headley added the email address of Major Iqbal from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence asking Rana to check with him regarding what was to be done with Rege.
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