Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a key accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, was finally brought back to India on Thursday to face trial in the Indian courts after his extradition from the USA, the NIA said. A special plane carrying the 64-year-old Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin landed in Delhi around 6pm.
A Special Court in the national capital sent Rana in National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody later in the evening.
Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan and Special Public Prosecutor Narender Mann, representing the NIA, sought the custody of Rana after he was presented around 9pm in the Special Court presided over by Chander Jit Singh in the Patiala House court complex. Advocate Piyush Sachdeva from the Delhi Legal Services Authority represented Rana as he could not arrange a lawyer to defend him in court.
Ahead of Rana's court appearance, Police removed media persons as well as members of the public from court premises, citing security concerns after the special plane carrying Rana landed at the Delhi Airport from Los Angeles following his extradition from the United States. Rana was escorted to Delhi by a team of officials from the NIA, National Security Guard (NSG).
The NIA said it had secured Rana's 'successful extradition’ after years of sustained and concerted efforts so as to bring to justice in India the key conspirator of the 2008 mayhem that claimed 166 lives in Mumbai. “With the active assistance of US Department of Justice, the US Sky Marshal, the NIA worked closely with other Indian intelligence agencies and NSG throughout the entire extradition process, which also saw India’s Ministries of External Affairs as well as Home Affairs coordinating with authorities concerned in the United States to take the matter to its successful conclusion,” an NIA statement read.
The announcement on Rana’s extradition finally came when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the US capital in February 2025. “We are giving a very violent man back to India immediately to face justice in India,” US President Donald Trump said at a joint press conference with PM Modi on February 14.
Rana was lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles. He was held in judicial custody in the US following proceedings initiated under the India-US Extradition Treaty. The extradition was finally cleared after Rana exhausted all legal avenues to stay the move.
A District Court for the Central District of California had initially ordered for his extradition on May 16, 2023. Rana then filed multiple litigations in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, all of which were rejected. He subsequently filed a petition for a Writ of Certiorari, two habeas petitions, and an emergency application before the US Supreme Court, which were also denied. “The extradition proceedings were initiated between the two countries after India eventually secured a surrender warrant for the wanted terrorist from the US Government,” the NIA said.
Rana is accused of conspiring with David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani and operatives of designated terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HUJI) along with other Pakistan-based co-conspirators, to carry out the three-day terror mayhem in India’s financial capital. Both LeT and HUJI have been declared terrorist organisations by India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
Among the 166 killed in Mumbai terror attacks were US, British and Israeli nationals. Besides, 238 people were injured in the deadly attacks carried out by a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists on a railway station, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre after they sneaked into Mumbai through the Arabian Sea route.
Rana had served in the Pakistan Army Medical Corps before he emigrated to Canada in the late 1990s and set up an immigration consultancy firm. He later moved to the US and set up an immigration service office in Chicago. Through his firm, Rana provided a cover to Headley to carry out a reconnaissance mission in Mumbai to plan as to how terrorists could launch the attacks in the metropolis.
The officials said Rana’s extradition will help Indian probe agencies expose the role of Pakistani State actors behind the 26/11 attacks and shed new light on the investigation. His extradition could provide important leads into his travels in parts of northern and southern India days before the carnage in 2008, NIA officials said.
Rana had visited Hapur and Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kochi in Kerala, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, and Mumbai in Maharashtra with his wife Samraz Rana Akhtar between November 13 and November 21, 2008, they said.
