India Sends Team to US to Push for Tahawwur Rana’s Return

New Delhi April 9,2025

Tahawwur Rana, who is accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, is being flown into India in a special aircraft after he ran out of legal avenues in the US, sources told. The aircraft would require refuelling and is likely to land tonight or early tomorrow morning.

This follows the US Supreme Court dismissing Rana's petition, seeking a stay on his extradition to India. "The application for stay made to The Chief Justice and referred to the Court is denied," the Supreme Court order on Monday stated.

The US Supreme Court had also rejected a similar petition in March. Rana had previously informed the US court that he suffered from an abdominal aortic aneurysm at risk of rupture on a moment's notice, Parkinson's disease with loss of mental function, and a mass indicating cancer of the bladder. He said he would die before he would be tried in India. He had also stated that he would be persecuted in India on account of national, religious, and cultural hostility.

In February, US President Donald Trump met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and announced in a joint press conference that Tahawwur Rana would face justice in India.

Rana is a Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley's associate, who was one of the main conspirators of the November 26 Mumbai attacks in 2008. He is a Pakistani-origin immigration entrepreneur, physician, and businessman. He is learnt to have links with terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI.

The US jury had acquitted Rana on the charge of material support to the attacks, but convicted him on two other counts and sentenced him to over 10 years' imprisonment. When his health began to deteriorate after the Covid pandemic, he was released from prison. He was rearrested for extradition to India. Rana then contested the extradition plea but ran out of legal recourse