A court in the United States on Thursday ruled that Tahawwur Rana, one of the accused persons in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks case, can be sent to India under the extradition treaty between the two countries, PTI reported on Saturday.
Rana is a Pakistan-origin Canadian businessman who is in a jail in the United States’ Los Angeles for his involvement in a terror attack on the newspaper Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2010.
The Mumbai Police have booked Rana under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Explosives Act, among other laws.
On Thursday, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on an appeal filed by Rana against a California district court’s order in 2023 that had approved his extradition to India.
In May, Rana filed a habeas corpus plea challenging the 2023 court order.
In July, US Attorney and Criminal Appeals Chief Bram Alden said in his closing arguments that Rana is extraditable to India, reported PTI.
“Rana is extraditable to India under the plain provisions of the treaty, and India has established probable cause to prosecute him for his role in terrorist attacks that resulted in 166 deaths and 239 injuries,” Alden had said.
On Thursday, the court of appeals held that under the limited scope of habeas review of an extradition order, Rana’s alleged offence falls within the terms of the extradition treaty between the US and India.
The court also said that the offence refers to a charged crime, rather than underlying acts, and requires an analysis of the elements of each crime.
It concluded that a co-conspirator’s plea agreement did not compel a different result. The panel held that the Non Bis in Idem exception did not apply because the Indian charges contained distinct elements from the crimes for which Rana was acquitted in the United States.
Under the principle of Non bis in idem, legal action cannot be taken twice for the same cause of action against a person.
Charges against Rana
The supplementary chargesheet filed by Maharashtra Police in September contained a scanned copy of Rana’s passport and other documents that he had provided to the hotel in Mumbai’s Powai area, where he stayed from November 11, 2008, 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 attacked several locations across the city. The attacks had resulted in the death of 166 persons, including 26 foreign citizens.
“He is the person who helped Headley get an Indian tourist visa on fake documents,” Joint Commissioner of Police Lakhmi Gautam had told the Hindustan Times in September 2023. Rana also allegedly provided logistical support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attacks.
This is in line with an earlier allegation made by 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 in September also included 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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