PTI
New Delhi
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a key accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, was brought to India after being “successfully extradited” from the US and was formally arrested, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) announced on Thursday.
The 64-year-old Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin landed in Delhi in a special plane from Los Angeles on Thursday evening, officials said. In a statement late evening, the NIA said Rana was “formally arrested immediately after his arrival at Delhi airport”.
Rana was escorted to Delhi by teams of the NIA and the National Security Guard (NSG), the agency said. On Thursday night Rana was produced before special NIA judge Chander Jit Singh, who is currently hearing arguments on Rana’s custody proceedings.
Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan and special public prosecutor Narender Mann represented the NIA.
An NIA team at the airport arrested Rana soon after he emerged from the airplane, upon completion of all the necessary legal formalities, it said.
The agency in an earlier statement said that it had secured the successful extradition after years of sustained and concerted efforts to bring to justice the key conspirator and “mastermind of the deadly attack” that claimed 166 lives.
“With the active assistance of USDoJ, the US Sky Marshal, NIA worked closely with other Indian intelligence agencies, NSG through the entire extradition process, which also saw India’s ministry of external affairs and ministry of home affairs coordinating with the other relevant authorities in the United States to take the matter to its successful conclusion,” the statement read.
Police officials asked mediapersons to leave and said they were ensuring the Patiala House court premises were fully vacant. The lawyers, however, refused to comment.
Tight security has been ensured outside the NIA headquarters at the CGO complex here and the entire premises has been cordoned off by security personnel of the Delhi police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
The announcement that Rana would be finally extradited came when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the US capital in February. “We are giving a very violent man back to India immediately to face justice in India,” US President Donald Trump said at a joint press conference with Modi on February 14.
Trump said his administration has approved the extradition of “very evil people of the world” Rana “to face justice in India”.
Rana was lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles.
He was held in judicial custody in the US following proceedings initiated under the India-US Extradition Treaty for his extradition. The extradition finally came through after Rana exhausted all legal avenues to stay the move.
The district court for the central district of California had ordered his extradition on May 16, 2023. Rana then filed multiple litigations in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, all of which were rejected.
He subsequently filed a petition for a writ of certiorari, two habeas petitions, and an emergency application before the US Supreme Court, which were also denied.
“The extradition proceedings were initiated between the two countries after India eventually secured a surrender warrant for the wanted terrorist from the US government,” the NIA said.
It is alleged that Rana was aware of against David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani Headley’s terror links and even helped in reconnaissance of targets in Mumbai and planning the attacks on the National Defence College (NDC) in New Delhi and Chabad House in Mumbai.
The NIA had registered a case on November 11, 2009 under sections 121A of the Indian Penal Code, Section 18 of the UAPA and Section 6(2) SAARC Convention (Suppression of Terrorism) Act against Headley, Rana and others for being part of a criminal conspiracy with Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami members to commit terrorist acts in New Delhi and other places in India.
