A Delhi court has sought the trial records of the 26/11 terror attack from a Mumbai court ahead of the expected extradition of the crime's alleged mastermind Tahawwur Hussain Rana.
District judge Vimal Kumar Yadav directed the officials of a Mumbai court to supply the records in an order passed on January 28. The order came on a plea of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), seeking the retrieval of the records from Mumbai.
A court in the US previously ruled that Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman Rana could be extradited to India where he is wanted in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack carried out by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists.
Tahawwur Rana became part of 26/11 terror attack conspiracy in 2005
Tahawwur Hussain Rana became part of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks conspiracy in 2005 as a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba and HUJI and was closely engaged with Pakistan-based conspirators, officials said.
US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that his administration has approved Rana's extradition to India, referring to him as "one of the plotters and very evil people of the world." 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.
Once extradited, Rana would be the third person to be sent on trial in India in the case after Ajmal Kasab and Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal. In November 2012, Kasab, the lone surviving Pakistan terrorist, was hanged to death in Pune's Yerawada Jail. Rana, a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), had entered into a criminal conspiracy for executing the Mumbai carnage around the beginning of 2005 along with other co-conspirators based in Pakistan, as per the NIA chargesheet.
Rana's role as a co-conspirator of the Mumbai terror attacks surfaced during the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe. Arrested by the FBI on October 27, 2009, Rana was chargesheeted by the NIA in 2011 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Section 6(2) of the SAARC Convention on Suppression of Terrorism.
Rana had assisted Headley in obtaining a visa for India and established 'Immigrant Law Centre' in Mumbai, which acted as a front, an official said. Rana had visited Hapur, Delhi, Agra, Kochi, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai with his wife Samraz Rana Akhtar between November 13 and November 21, 2008. His initial planning includes the attack on Chabad Houses located in different cities. Headley had gone to the US and met Rana in June 2006 where they discussed the future action plan, officials said.
Rana remained in contact with Major Iqbal, another co-conspirator of the 26/11 carnage. Headley and Rana had taken all possible steps to conceal their contacts with Pakistan-based co-conspirators while in the US. Since Rana was an Army deserter, Headley had assured him help through Major Iqbal, officials added.
Headley applied for a multiple entry business visa to India to establish a branch office of the Immigrant Law Centre in Mumbai. Rana also facilitated his visa extension for 10 years in July 2007. The Mumbai attack co-conspirators had directed Headley to seek assistance from Rana and his contacts for travel and conceal the real purpose of the visit. Headley fitted in the plan given his Caucasian appearance and American upbringing, officials said.