US Supreme Court rejects 26/11 Mumbai attacks accused Tahawwur Rana's emergency plea seeking stay of his extradition to India

On February 13, while briefing the media with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved Tahawwur Rana`s extradition to India, referring to him as "one of the plotters and very evil people of the world". File pic

The US Supreme Court has rejected Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana's emergency application seeking a stay of his extradition to India.

Rana, 64, is currently lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. He had filed an 'Emergency Application For Stay' with the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit.

'Application' denied by Justice Kagan, a note dated March 6, 2025 on the Supreme Court website says.

The application was submitted to Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Elena Kagan.

Rana became part of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks conspiracy in 2005: NIA

Tahawwur Hussain Rana became part of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks conspiracy in 2005 as a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI) and was closely engaged with Pakistan-based conspirators, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had earlier revealed.

On February 13, while briefing the media with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved Rana's extradition to India, referring to him as "one of the plotters and very evil people of the world".

Sixty-four-year-old Rana, a Pakistan-born Canadian national, is a close associate of Pakistani-American terrorist and one of the main conspirators David Coleman Headley. He is serving supervised detention at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles after completing a 14-year sentence in 2023.

Once extradited, 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, Kasab, the lone surviving Pakistan terrorist, was hanged to death in Pune's Yerawada Jail.

Rana had entered into a criminal conspiracy for executing the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks around the beginning of 2005 along with other co-conspirators based in Pakistan, as per the National Investigation Agency (NIA) charge sheet.

Rana's role as a co-conspirator of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks surfaced during the central agency's probe.

On October 27, 2009, he was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Two years later, the NIA chargesheeted him under various sections of the Indian Penal Code as well as Section 6(2) of the SAARC Convention on Suppression of Terrorism.

(With PTI inputs)