Himalaya Harbinger, Rudrapur Bureau
A team of investigators, including an inspector general (IG) rank officer of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), has travelled to the US to take 26/11 Mumbai attacks co-conspirator Tahawwur Rana into custody and bring him to India, officials said.
The Pakistan-born Canadian physician earlier this week lost his plea against extradition in the US Supreme Court.
A team of three officers from NIA, including an IG and a DIG, and a few other intelligence officers, have travelled to the US and Rana could be brought to Delhi shortly,” people familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.
The US Supreme Court first rejected Rana’s plea on January 21 against extradition to India and his surrender to NIA was approved by the Donald Trump administration during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Washington in February.
Against Trump administration’s decision, Rana again filed a review petition, first before a single judge in the US Supreme Court in February and then again before chief justice John G Roberts Jr, seeking an emergency stay on his extradition.
Rana had argued “he was being sent into a hornet’s nest where he will be pointed to as a target of national, religious, and cultural animosity whose punishment is of the highest national interest”.
The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks, he further contended. “Further, because of his Muslim religion, his Pakistani origin, his status as a former member of the Pakistani Army, the relation of the putative charges to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and his chronic health conditions he is even more likely to be tortured than otherwise would be the case, and that torture is very likely to kill him in short order,” Rana argued
