Mumbai cops file charge sheet against Canadian Tahawwur Rana for 26/11

Rana is currently lodged in a jail in Los Angeles for his involvement in plotting a terror attack on the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Mumbai: On Monday, after a gap of 15 years, Mumbai police’s crime branch filed a charge sheet against Canadian national Tahawwur Hussain Rana for his role in the 26/11 terror plot.

Washington [USA], May 18 (ANI): File Photo: The US court has approved the extradition of a Canadian businessman of Pakistani descent Tahawwur Rana to India where he is sought for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. (ANI Photo) (LawBeatInd twitter)

In May this year, a US district court in California approved Rana’s extradition to India for his role in 26/11 which he has since challenged. He is at present lodged in a jail in Los Angeles for his involvement in plotting a terror attack on the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

The Mumbai crime branch’s 405-page charge sheet filed before the UAPA court mostly regurgitates information already in the public domain. It contends that Rana came to India on November 11th and stayed until November 21st, 2008. Two of these days were spent in Mumbai where he stayed at Hotel Renaissance at Powai.

During their investigation, joint commissioner of police Lakhmi Gautam told HT, they had found several documents which indicated that Rana was not only a co-conspirator along with David Coleman Headley, but that he actively participated to give effect to the conspiracy. “He is the person who helped Headley get an Indian tourist visa on fake documents,” the officer added. Rana also allegedly provided logistical support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba for the 26/11 attacks. In addition, the crime branch in its charge sheet makes a mention of the emails sent by Headley to Rana pertaining to 26/11. “In one of the emails Headley asks Rana for Major Iqbal’s email id,” said another senior officer.

Major Iqbal is an ISI operative identified in the 26/11 terror plot. Both Rana and Headley had travelled together from New York to Pakistan and from Dubai to Pakistan in the days preceding the Mumbai terror attack, said the officer detailing the findings which have been mentioned in the charge sheet.

This is the fourth supplementary charge sheet in the ongoing 2008 case but the first against Tahawwur Rana. When asked about the timing of the charge sheet, the officer said, “A formal charge sheet will help our extradition efforts. It shows that he has been formally charged for terror attacks in India and the warrant process against him can now begin.”

According to investigating agencies, Headley had in 2005 received instructions from his Lashkar handlers to travel to India to conduct surveillance of potential terror targets. The following year, he changed his name from Sayed Daood Salim Gilani to David Coleman Headley in Philadelphia to facilitate his activities on behalf of Lashkar by portraying himself as an American who was neither Muslim nor of Pakistani-origin.

In the same year, Headley and his Lashkar handlers decided to open an immigration office in Mumbai as a cover for his surveillance activities. Rana, who owned First World Immigration Services in Chicago and elsewhere, opened a branch in Mumbai as a cover for his activities. Rana allegedly advised Headley on how to obtain a visa for travel to India on fake documents. Headley then made five extended trips to Mumbai — in September 2006, February and September 2007, and April and July 2008 — each time making videotapes of various potential targets in the city, including those which were attacked in November 2008.

Rana, a former medical officer in the Pakistani army, migrated to Canada in 1990 where he became a citizen before moving to Chicago. As per US law, if he is not extradited to India, he will be deported to his home country Canada after the completion of his prison term in 2027.