The United States’ Supreme Court has cleared the extradition of Tahawwur Rana, one of the persons accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case, to India, The Hindu reported on Saturday.

Rana, a Pakistan-origin Canadian businessman, is in jail in Los Angeles awaiting his extradition. He is wanted in India for his alleged role in the attacks on November 26, 2008, when 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists took a sea route from Pakistan to Mumbai and attacked several locations across the city.

The attack resulted in the death of 166 persons, including 26 foreign citizens.

In May 2023, a US district court ordered his extradition to India in connection with the matter, the Hindustan Times reported.

Rana challenged his extradition and lost legal battles in several federal courts, including the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. On November 13, he filed a petition for a writ of certiorari before the Supreme Court.

A writ of certiorari is a legal document that asks a higher court to review a decision taken by a lower court.

His petition was denied by the Supreme Court on January 21, NDTV reported.

Rana is allegedly associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, also known as “Daood Gilani”, who was one of the chief conspirators of the attacks in Mumbai, The Hindu reported. Rana allegedly helped Headley assist the Lashkar-e-Taiba in carrying out the attacks.

Headley was arrested in October 2009 by US authorities and sentenced to 35 years in prison for his alleged role in the attacks. Soon after, Rana was also arrested in the US that month.

In 2011, Rana was convicted in Chicago for providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attacks in Mumbai, The Indian Express reported. He was also convicted for his involvement in the 2010 terror attack on the newspaper Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen, Denmark.

However, jurors in the US acquitted Rana of the more serious charge of aiding the attacks in Mumbai.

In 2011, the National Investigation Agency filed a chargesheet against nine persons, including Rana, for planning and carrying out the 2008 attacks, The Indian Express reported. In 2014, a Delhi court issued fresh non-bailable warrants for their arrest.

Last year, India began preparations for Rana’s extradition from the United States, with officials from both countries – including those from central investigative agencies and legal departments – holding a meeting at the US embassy in New Delhi, The Indian Express reported.

Charges against Rana

A supplementary chargesheet filed by Maharashtra Police against Rana in September 2023 contained a scanned copy of his passport and other documents that he had provided to the hotel in Mumbai’s Powai area, where he stayed from November 11, 2008, to November 21, 2008, to prove that he left the country five days before the attacks.

“He is the person who helped Headley get an Indian tourist visa on fake documents,” Joint Commissioner of Police Lakhmi Gautam had told the Hindustan Times. Rana also allegedly provided logistical support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attacks.

This is in line with an earlier allegation made by US prosecutors in the extradition case saying that Rana’s immigration law centre in Chicago, as well as a branch office in Mumbai, was used as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba’s terrorism activities between 2006 and 2008.

The chargesheet submitted in September also included emails sent by Headley to Rana pertaining to the terror attacks.

“In one mail, he asks Rana what is to be done about Shiv Sena worker Rajaram Rege, whose help Headley had sought by claiming to be a tourist,” an unidentified senior police officer had told The Indian Express. In the second email, Headley added the email address of Major Iqbal from Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence asking Rana to check with him regarding what was to be done with Rege.