26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana’s appeal with the US Supreme Court seeking a stay on his extradition to India was rejected on Monday, April 7. He is now closer to being handed over to Indian authorities to face justice.
Rana, 64, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles.
He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Headley conducted a recce of Mumbai before the attacks by posing as an employee of Rana’s immigration consultancy.
Tahawwur Rana’s plea with US top court
Tahawwur Rana submitted an ‘Emergency Application For Stay Pending Litigation of Petition For Writ of Habeas Corpus’ on February 27 2025, with Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit Elena Kagan.
Kagan had denied the application earlier last month.
Rana then renewed his ‘Emergency Application for Stay Pending Litigation of Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus previously addressed to Justice Kagan’ and requested that the renewed application be directed to US Chief Justice John Roberts.
An order on the US Supreme Court website noted that Rana’s renewed application had been “distributed for Conference” on April 4 and had been “referred to the Court.”
A notice on the Supreme Court website on Monday said, “Application denied by the Court.”
Tahawwur Rana’s conviction
Tahawwur Rana was convicted in the US of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the terrorist plot in Denmark and one count of providing material support to the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashker-e-Taiba, which was responsible for the attacks in Mumbai.
New York-based Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra had told PTI that Rana had made his application to the Supreme Court to prevent extradition, which Justice Kagan denied on March 6. The application was then submitted before Roberts, “who has shared it with the Court to conference so as to harness the entire Court’s view.”
What did Tahawwur Rana’s emergency plea say?
In his emergency application, Rana had sought a stay of his extradition and surrender to India pending litigation (including exhaustion of all appeals) on the merits of his February 13.
In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates US law and the UN Convention Against Torture “because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, the petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture.”
“The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks,” the application said.
The application also said that his “severe medical conditions” render extradition to Indian detention facilities a “de facto” death sentence in this case.
The US Supreme Court denied Rana’s petition for a writ of certiorari relating to his original habeas petition on January 21. The application notes that on that same day, newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio had met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Tahawwur Rana’s ‘Surrender to India’
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Washington on February 12 to meet with Donald Trump, Rana’s counsel received a letter from the Department of State stating that “on February 11, 2025, the Secretary of State decided to authorise” Rana’s “surrender to India,” pursuant to the “Extradition Treaty between the United States and India”.
Rana’s Counsel requested from the State Department the complete administrative record on which Secretary Rubio based his decision to authorize Rana’s surrender to India.
The Counsel also requested immediate information on any commitment the United States has obtained from India with respect to Rana’s treatment. “The government declined to provide any information in response to these requests,” the application said.
It added that given Rana’s underlying health conditions and the State Department’s findings regarding the treatment of prisoners, it is very likely “Rana will not survive long enough to be tried in India”.
Trump approved extradition of ‘very evil’ Tahawwur Rana
During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Modi in the White House in February, President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of “very evil” Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, “to face justice in India”.
A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations in Mumbai.
