US Supreme Court rejects 26/11 attack accused Tahawwur Rana’s plea seeking stay on his extradition to India

US Supreme Court rejects 26/11 attack accused Tahawwur Rana’s plea seeking stay on his extradition to India

The US Supreme Court has denied 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana's appeal asking to delay his extradition to India, bringing him closer to being handed over to Indian authorities to face trails.

Rana, 64, a Canadian citizen from Pakistan, is currently being held at a detention center in Los Angeles.He is linked to David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American terrorist who played a key role in planning the 26/11 attacks. Headley went to Mumbai before the attacks, pretending to work at Rana's immigration company.

Rana on February 27, 2025 had filed an "Emergency Application For Stay Pending Litigation of Petition For Writ of Habeas Corpus" with US Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan, who handles the Ninth Circuit.

However, Kagan rejected the application last month.

Rana then refiled the same emergency application and asked that it be directed to US Chief Justice John Roberts instead.

A statement on the Supreme Court website mentioned that Rana's renewed application was "distributed for Conference" on April 4 and had been "referred to the Court." The website later posted a notice saying the "Application was denied by the Court." Rana was found guilty in the US of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the terrorist plot in Denmark and one count of providing material support to Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashker-e-Taiba which was responsible for the attacks in Mumbai.

New York-based Indian-American lawyer Ravi Batra told PTI that Rana had filed an application with the Supreme Court to stop his extradition, but Justice Kagan denied it on March 6. The application was then submitted before Roberts, “who has shared it with the Court to conference so as to harness the entire Court’s view.”The Supreme Court justices are Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

In his emergency application, Rana had sought a stay of his extradition and surrender to India pending litigation (including exhaustion of all appeals) on the merits of his February 13.

In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates US law and the UN Convention Against Torture "because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, the petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture." "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,” the application said.

The application also said that his “severe medical conditions” render extradition to Indian detention facilities a “de facto" death sentence in this case.

Rana also referred to a recent UK High Court decision that blocked the extradition of arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari to India, citing the risk of "torture" as a key reason, to support his own application.

The US Supreme Court on January 21 denied Rana's appeal against his extradition to India. The application notes that on that same day, newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio had met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. His surrender to the NIA was also approved by the Donald Trump administration during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington last month.

Rana’s legal team asked the State Department for the full administrative record that Secretary Rubio used to authorize Rana's surrender to India.

The Counsel also requested immediate information of any commitment the United States has obtained from India with respect to Rana’s treatment. “The government declined to provide any information in response to these requests,” the application said.

The application further argued that due to Rana’s serious health issues and the State Department’s concerns about prisoner treatment, it is highly probable that “Rana will not survive long enough to stand trial in India.”

During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Modi in the White House in February, President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.

A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations in Mumbai.