Rana has filed a final appeal on humanitarian grounds in a US appeals forum, which has delayed his extradition. He was earlier to be brought to India in February after the Trump administrationâs go ahead.
The 64-year-old Rana, a Pakistan-born Canadian national and a close associate of Pakistani-American terrorist and one of the main conspirators David Coleman Headley, is serving supervised detention at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles after completing a 14-year sentence in 2023.
Referring to him as âone of the plotters and very evil people of the worldâ, US President Donald Trump on February 13 announced that his administration had approved Ranaâs extradition to India.
Once extradited, Rana would be the third person to be put on trial in India in the 26/11 case after Ajmal Kasab and Zabiuddin Ansari, alias Abu Jundal. In November 2012, Kasab, the lone surviving Pakistan terrorist, was hanged to death in Puneâs Yerawada Jail, while Jundal is serving a life sentence. Rana too faces the death penalty in India.
Being a high-value catch, Ranaâs detention location in India will remain secret even though the case against him has been registered in Delhi.
A team of National Investigation Agency (NIA) will go to the United States along with other personnel drawn from various security agencies for the extradition. The Indian mission in the United States will also be involved in the process.
Soon after the constitution of NIA in 2008 to investigate the Mumbai massacre, a team of officials had gone to the US to question Rana but was not given access by the New Jersey administration. On the contrary, Kasab was given access several times to multiple US agencies. Once in India, Ranaâs interrogation will be done by multiple agencies, led by the NIA, followed by his trial. The NIA had filed a case in 2009 under various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 and chargesheet in December, 2011. Rana is accused number two in the chargesheet.
