India may get 26/11 plotter’s custody soon
Probe agencies are hopeful that Canadian-Pakistani citizen Tahawwur Rana, who was involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, might be extradited to India from the US before the year-end. Rana is learnt to have lost two appeals against the extradition process in American courts.
Rana’s firm provided cover to Headley
- Tahawwur Rana is a Pak-origin Canadian businessman
- Accused Rana had set up a consultancy firm in Chicago
- Its Mumbai branch ‘provided’ accused David Headley cover to survey 26/11 targets
Sources said Rana (63) now had a 45-day window to appeal in the US supreme court. An appeal filed by Rana, seeking re-hearing of his extradition case, was rejected by US court of appeals last month.
The court ruled that sufficient evidence had been received from India to support the magistrate judge’s finding of probable cause that Rana had committed the crimes for which he had been charged with. Rana is a Pakistan-origin Canadian businessman. After a brief stint as a doctor in the Pakistan army, he had shifted to Canada.
Later, he had set up a consultancy firm in Chicago. The company’s Mumbai branch had reportedly provided another 26/11 accused David Coleman Headley, who is currently in custody in the US, with the cover to scout and survey targets for Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).
During the attacks, which began on November 26, 2008, 10 LeT terrorists stormed Mumbai and for four days targeted several areas. As many as 166 persons, including six Americans, were killed.
