According to PTI, a high-level team from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has travelled to the US to complete the extradition of Tahawwur Rana, a major suspect in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks that claimed 166 lives.
Senior authorities including Inspector General Ashish Batra, Deputy Inspector General Jaya Roy, and a Deputy Superintendent of Police are part of the NIA delegation. Three personnel from India’s intelligence services are with them. Following confirmation of a “surrender warrant,” a court order allowing the movement of a wanted person across countries, the team left for the United States on Sunday.
This comes after the US Supreme Court recently rejected Tahawwur Rana’s request for a stay on his extradition. The final decision essentially removed the remaining legal obstacle to Rana’s transfer to Indian custody, since the court had already denied a review appeal that he had submitted in January of this year.
After the decision, US officials took their time checking other papers that Indian agencies had provided. Now that the legal procedures have been finished, the extradition is anticipated to happen soon.
A 64-year-old Canadian businessman of Pakistani descent named Tahawwur Rana is charged with being a close member of Lashkar-e-Taiba. He is said to have assisted another important conspirator, his boyhood buddy David Coleman Headley, in obtaining the required paperwork so that he could go to India and spy on possible targets in Mumbai. Before the 2008 bombings, Headley—also known as Dawood Gilani—conducted thorough reconnaissance trips. He subsequently testified against Rana in previous hearings.
