New Delhi
The 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tawwur Rana has reached Delhi. Tahwwur Rana has been taken by a 7 -member NIA team from America to Delhi. He arrived here amid tight security arrangements at Delhi Airport. Tahwwur Rana will be medical and then the NIA will produce him in court. Rana can be kept in the High Security Ward of Tihar Jail after being brought from America to India.
Tihar’s high security ward will be kept
Sources said on Thursday that 64 -year -old Tehwwur Rana will be kept in a high security ward in Tihar Jail in Delhi. He informed that all necessary preparations have already been made in the jail to keep the terrorist. Tehwwur Rana is a close ally of David Kolman Headley alias Dawood Gilani, one of the main conspirators of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. A special chartered aircraft regarding Rana left for India from America on Wednesday (April 9). 166 people were killed in the 2008 terror attack.
NIA will be questioned in headquarters
Tehwavur Rana is being extradited after a long legal battle in bringing India from America to India. Sources said that Rana will be detained by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is corduring his extradition in collaboration with Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). It is likely that he will soon be produced in a Delhi court.
In which streams are Rana accused?
Rana has been accused under several sections, including criminal conspiracy, waging war against the Government of India, murder, forgery and illegal activities (prevention) Acts. However, the Mumbai Police has not yet received any official information about its transfer to the city. But it is believed that on taking him to Mumbai, he will be kept in this cell of Orthur Road Jail where the terrorist Kasab was kept.
Success after Trump’s green signal
In addition to being an associate of David Kolmen Headley, it is believed that Rana had close ties with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba. Rana’s extradition was announced by US President Donald Trump during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s White House visit in February. After this, Rana tried to stop extradition in the Supreme Court, but now all his legal appeals have been rejected.
India created such a cycle that Rana came under the grip …….
The desired and conspirator of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Tawwur Rana has been extradited to India. This work was not so easy and comfortable, but India showed it to be true. This is one of the most important extraditions of central agencies as the NIA officials have to visit the US several times and persuade the US government to extradite Rana. Once Rana had to convince the US government to keep it in the US jail, when he was about to be released. During this time, Indian officials not only ensured the guarantee of extradition of Rana but also gathered evidence against him.
Arrest, re -arrest, punishment, extradition request of India
The 64 -year -old Tahawwur Hussain Rana is a Canadian citizen born in Pakistan. He was arrested by US officials on 18 October 2009. Two weeks before this, on October 3, 2009, his childhood friend David Coleman Headley was arrested. India had also sent extradition request for Headley, but US authorities refused to give him, as it had admitted to being convicted on 12 allegations related to terrorism, including several cases related to the Mumbai attacks and several cases related to the failed conspiracy in Denmark.
Since he was ready to cooperate with American investigators, Headley’s petition agreement included a non-relative provision. On the other hand, Rana was prosecuted in three cases in the US. These included a conspiracy to promote terrorism in India, a conspiracy to promote terrorism in Denmark, and to provide assistance to a foreign terrorist organization. Meanwhile, India declared Tahwavur Rana as desired and arrest warrant was issued on August 28, 2018 against him on conspiracy, war, murder, forgery, terrorist attacks.
On the other hand, Rana’s childhood friend Headley testified before the US prosecution and on June 9, 2011, Rana convicted Rana for providing physical assistance to Denmark-related terrorist conspiracy and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET), but acquitted him of terrorist conspiracy related to India. On January 17, 2013, he was sentenced to 168 months imprisonment by the American Distique Court. After being in jail for 7 years, the plea of ​​compassionate release of Rana was also approved during the Kovid-19 epidemic. Meanwhile, when he was about to be released, the extradition was requested by India. Rana was then arrested again on 10 June 2020.
Indian lawyer Dayan Krishnan helped ‘free’
Since the investigation of the 26/11 attacks in 2009, the NIA was in regular contact with the US investigative agency FBI and the Department of Justice to get the custody of David Headley and Tehwwur Rana. A team of NIA first visited the US in 2010 and Headley was questioned in 2010 but Rana could not be questioned at that time. Subsequently, in 2018, NIA officials visited the US to collect evidence in the case in 2018. Two years later, Rana’s extradition action started.
After Rana’s extradition proceedings began in 2020, the NIA teams visited several times to assist US prosecutors in convincing the documents, allegations etc. of the case. In the US, Rana was advocated by British barrister Paul Garlic, while senior advocate Dayan Krishnan assisted ‘free’ in India’s extradition proceedings against Rana. Krishnan has previously been introduced in sensitive matters like Delhi gang rape case, Commonwealth Corruption Affairs etc.
During the court hearing, US prosecutors argued that Rana knew that his childhood friend David Coleman Headley was associated with Lashkar and by assisting Headley and covering him for his activities, Rana was supporting the terrorist organization and his colleagues. Acures said Rana knew about Headley’s meetings, discussions and plans for attacks, including some targets.
Statement against Headley
The interesting thing is that itself Rana attacked the credibility of Headley, the chief witness of American prosecutors during the debate, and said that the extradition court should ignore Headley’s testimony as he (A) is a criminal who has returned to criminal activities, (B) He has received his intelligence service and deception training by ISI’s intelligence service. Rana even said that Headley used it without his knowledge. However, the court did not accept his arguments and on 16 May 2023, a district court in California approved its extradition.
Rana has a new bet to avoid extradition
Rana then moved a habeas corpus court in California to avoid extradition, cited a provision of double threats. In his application, he said that a person cannot be punished twice for the same crime. Apart from this, it said that its extradition is forbidden under the extradition treaty between India and the US. However, a technical analysis of the extradition treaty was done by the US justice and state departments and dismissed its arguments.
US Secretary of State signed extradition
The court eventually dismissed his petition on August 10, 2023. Rana then approached the court of appeal for the ninth court, which dismissed his plea on 15 August 2024. He then moved to the US Supreme Court on 13 November last year, in which a petition was filed to review the decision of the lower court. The apex court dismissed his petition on January 21 this year, a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as US President. This approved his extradition in India. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to America in February, the Donald Trump administration approved extradition and signed it by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rana reached Supreme Court again
To prevent his extradition in India, Tehwavur Rana, desperate to put an emergency ban on humanitarian grounds, again moved the US Supreme Court and made the position of Indian jails the basis. On 6 March, Justice Elena Kagan rejected her application, after which he moved to the court of Chief Justice John G Roberts Junior. Chief Justice Roberts Junior also refused to consider his petition on this Monday and thus every move failed. He will now face allegations of Mumbai attacks in the NIA court in India.