US apex court rejects Rana’s last-ditch plea
US Supreme Court rejects Tahawwur Rana's plea to halt extradition to India over 26/11 Mumbai attacks, citing fears of torture and political bias.
The US Supreme Court has rejected 26/11 Mumbai attacks co-conspirator Tahawwur Rana’s plea seeking an emergency stay on his extradition to India, people familiar with the development said.
Following the denial to entertain his plea by a US Supreme Court judge, justice Elena Kagan, the Pakistani-Canadian doctor has now sought to renew his application before the court of chief justice, John G Roberts Jr.
“Petitioner Tahawwar Rana respectfully renews his emergency application for stay pending litigation of petition for writ of habeas corpus previously addressed to Justice Kagan, and requests that the renewed application be directed to Chief Justice Roberts,” the application said.
In his first plea filed last week against extradition before justice Kagan, Rana claimed that being a Muslim of Pakistani origin, and a former Pakistan army officer, the likelihood of his torture in India was high, adding that he was being sent into a “hornet’s nest”.
Rana cited a recent UK high court decision rejecting arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari’s extradition to India on grounds that he could face “torture” to buttress the application.
Indian officials have termed the move futile, although they admitted that it has marginally delayed Rana’s surrender to a National Investigation Agency (NIA) team, till at least the end of March.
“These are desperate attempts to avoid extradition. He won’t succeed,” said an Indian government official on Friday.
The US Supreme Court on January 21 rejected Rana’s plea against extradition to India and his surrender to NIA was approved by the Donald Trump administration during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Washington last month. The state department press office told HT in an email response last month that “the secretary of state has signed the surrender warrant authorising Rana’s surrender to Indian authorities”.
The external affairs ministry said that India is working closely with US authorities to complete formalities for extraditing Rana. “You would have seen President Trump’s comments regarding the extradition of Rana. The joint statement, which was adopted during the visit [of Prime Minister Modi to the US in February], also reflects this sentiment,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a media briefing.
“We are working closely with the US government to complete the necessary formalities to allow for his extradition to India. There are certain legalities in the US for which I cannot answer, but those have to be taken care of,” he said. “But our understanding is that...his extradition should happen.”
Rana, 64, has argued that if extradited to India, he will be in danger of being subjected to torture.
Rana has imputed political considerations behind his extradition, arguing that the day Modi arrived in Washington (February 12), the state department informed his counsel that it had decided to surrender him to India “anyway”.
“Petitioner is to be sent into a hornet’s nest where he will be (and already has been, in the joint statement by Prime Minister Modi and President Trump) pointed to as a target of national, religious, and cultural animosity whose punishment is of the highest national interest,” Rana said in his plea last week, seen by HT.
“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,” he has claimed.
“Further, because of his Muslim religion, his Pakistani origin, his status as a former member of the Pakistani Army, the relation of the putative charges to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and his chronic health conditions he is even more likely to be tortured than otherwise would be the case, and that torture is very likely to kill him in short order,” Rana argued.
In a supplementary document filed on February 2 in support of his plea, Rana cited UK high court’s February 28 decision in London rejecting India’s extradition request for Sanjay Bhandari.
“The Bhandari decision underscores the importance of meaningful judicial review of the Secretary of State’s purported determination that Rana’s extradition to India will not violate the CAT as implemented in the US. The Bhandari decision demonstrates that petitioner’s fears of being subjected to torture, likely to result in death, are well-founded as evidenced by the UK courts’ refusal to extradite to India an individual charged merely with financial crimes unaccompanied by any high-profile, overarching religious, ethnic, or national considerations that would make the individual a particular focus of scorn or animus,” Rana said in his plea.
Currently lodged at metropolitan detention centre at Los Angeles, Rana will be handed over to NIA by FBI on a day agreed upon by both sides.
Between November 26 and 29, 2008, 166 people, including 24 foreign nationals, were killed as a 10-member heavily armed Lashkar-e-Taiba squad that arrived in Mumbai via the Arabian Sea, held the city hostage for close to 60 hours, gunning down civilians at will.
Interrogation of captured terrorist Ajmal Kasab and technical investigations revealed the direct role of Pakistan’s spy agency ISI, and three of its military officials were named as key conspirators along with LeT chief Hafiz Saeed.
David Coleman Headley, a US citizen and childhood friend of Rana, conducted reconnaissance of the targets in Mumbai. He was arrested by FBI in 2009 and is currently serving a 35-year term after he entered into a plea bargain with authorities there.
