New Delhi (India), February 27: In a significant development ahead of the much-anticipated extradition of 26/11 mastermind Tahawwur Hussain Rana, Delhi’s Patiala House Court has issued an order to retrieve trial court records related to the 2008 Mumbai attacks. This decision follows a request by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Delhi to recall the records from Mumbai, where they had been previously sent due to the presence of multiple cases concerning the attacks in both cities.
The latest move could pave the way for Rana’s prosecution to take place in Delhi, rather than in Mumbai. This comes after the US government recently approved his extradition to India. US President Donald Trump described Rana as one of the key plotters behind the 26/11 attacks, calling him “one of the very evil people in the world.”
Rana, a 64-year-old Pakistan-born Canadian national, is a close associate of Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, who was one of the main conspirators behind the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. After serving a 14-year sentence in the US, Rana is currently under supervised detention at a metropolitan detention center in Los Angeles.
On January 21, the US Supreme Court denied a petition filed by Rana to prevent his extradition to India. The petition, a writ of certiorari, had been filed in November 2024 against a lower court’s ruling that had upheld his extradition. Rana had been convicted in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on charges related to terrorism and providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terrorist group responsible for the Mumbai attacks.
In India, Rana faces charges including conspiracy to commit murder, waging war, forgery, and terrorist acts. He has remained in custody throughout the extradition process. Despite opposing the extradition, Rana’s appeal was rejected by a US magistrate judge on May 16, 2023, who certified that Rana is extraditable. Subsequently, his petition for a writ of habeas corpus was denied by the Ninth Circuit Court in August 2024, further clearing the path for his extradition.
This decision marks a crucial step in bringing justice to the victims of the 26/11 attacks, with Rana’s prosecution expected to follow soon in Delhi.