NEW DELHI, Apr 10:
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a key accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, was brought to India after being “successfully extradited” from the US and was formally arrested, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) announced on Thursday.
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The 64-year-old Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin landed in Delhi in a special plane from Los Angeles this evening, ending days of speculation of when and how he will be extradited, officials said.
Later in the night, he was produced before Special NIA judge Chander Jit Singh, who is currently hearing arguments on his custody proceedings.
Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan and special public prosecutor Narender Mann are representing the NIA while advocate Piyush Sachdeva from Delhi Legal Services Authority will represent Rana.
Rana was brought to the court in a cavalcade of multiple vehicles, including jail van, armoured Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) vehicle and an ambulance.
In the evening, the NIA said Rana was “formally arrested immediately after his arrival at Delhi airport”.
He was escorted to Delhi by teams of NIA and National Security Guard (NSG), the agency said.
An NIA team at the airport arrested Rana soon after he emerged from the airplane, upon completion of all the necessary legal formalities, it said.
The agency in an earlier statement said that it had secured the successful extradition after years of sustained and concerted efforts to bring to justice the key conspirator and “mastermind of the deadly attack” that claimed 166 lives.
“With the active assistance of USDoJ, the US Sky Marshal, NIA worked closely with other Indian intelligence agencies, NSG through the entire extradition process, which also saw India’s Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs coordinating with the other relevant authorities in the United States to take the matter to its successful conclusion,” the statement read.
Advocates Krishnan and Mann reached the Patiala House court premises shortly after news that Rana had landed in Delhi. Police officials asked mediapersons to leave and said they were ensuring the court premises were fully vacant.
Meanwhile, tight security has been ensured outside the NIA headquarters at the CGO complex here and the entire premises have been cordoned off by security personnel of Delhi Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
Key roads outside and around the NIA office has been closed for any vehicular traffic. Entry and exit from gate no 2 of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium metro station, which is opposite the probe agency’s office, has been barred.
The announcement that Rana would be finally extradited came when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the US capital in February. “We are giving a very violent man back to India immediately to face justice in India,” US President Donald Trump said at a joint press conference with Modi on February 14.
Trump said his administration has approved the extradition of “very evil people of the world” Rana “to face justice in India”.
Rana was lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles.
He was held in judicial custody in the US following proceedings initiated under the India-US Extradition Treaty for his extradition. The extradition finally came through after Rana exhausted all legal avenues to stay the move.
The District Court for the Central District of California had ordered his extradition on May 16, 2023. Rana then filed multiple litigations in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, all of which were rejected.
He subsequently filed a petition for a writ of certiorari, two habeas petitions, and an emergency application before the US Supreme Court, which were also denied.
“The extradition proceedings were initiated between the two countries after India eventually secured a surrender warrant for the wanted terrorist from the US government,” the NIA said.
Rana is accused of conspiring with David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani, and operatives of designated terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HUJI) along with other Pakistan-based co-conspirators, to carry out the the three-day terror siege of India’s financial capital.
Both LeT and HUJI have been declared terrorist organisations by the Indian government under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
Among the 166 killed were US, British and Israeli nationals. Besides, 238 were injured in the mayhem carried out by a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists on a railway station, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre after they sneaked into Mumbai through the Arabian Sea.
The terrorists had targeted multiple iconic locations in Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, Leopold Cafe, Chabad House and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station, each of which Headley had scouted in advance.
Rana would be the third person to be sent on trial in India in the case after Ajmal Kasab and Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal. In November 2012, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist among the Pakistani group, was hanged to death in Yerawada Jail in Pune. (PTI)
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