Senior officials of the Home Ministry quietly visited the United States early this month to press for the extradition of Tahawwur Rana, a close associate of David Coleman Headley, who is charged in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
The move stemmed from the failure of the National Investigation Agency to get the custody of Headley, who entered into a plea bargain with the U.S. authorities.
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Rana is serving a 14-year jail term in the U.S. for providing material support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), but has not struck a plea bargain. The officials visited the U.S. in August first week , The Hindu has learnt.
Rana has been imprisoned since 2009. Though he was sentenced to 14 years in jail by a U.S. district court in 2013, his term would include the period he had served in prison.
The ‘double jeopardy’ clause in the U.S. law prohibits punishment for the same crime twice. So India has renewed its attempt to seek Rana’s custody on the ground that he was actively involved in planning an attack on the National Defence College in Delhi and Chabad houses (Jewish religious centres) in several cities.
“In the next six years, Rana will walk out of the U.S. prison. Before this happens, we require his custody for investigation in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case. We are hoping for his extradition as his testimony is key to our case,” said a senior official of the Home Ministry.
India was to have discussed Rana’s extradition with the U.S. authorities when Home Minister Rajnath Singh would have visited the U.S. to attend the Homeland Security dialogue in July this year. But Mr. Singh cancelled his trip because of the unrest in Kashmir.
“The U.S. authorities were given a fresh set of documents on Rana’s role in conspiracies to launch terror attacks in India. We have assured them that there are new grounds to try him here and it will not affect the ‘double jeopardy’ clause,” the official said. In March this year, the NIA had sent a fresh extradition request to the U.S. to charge Rana who had given Headley a safe base in Mumbai.
Rana, a Chicago businessman and a school friend of Headley from Pakistan, helped him open an immigration firm in Mumbai, which served as a cover to conduct reconnaissance of targets that were attacked on November 26, 2008.
According to the FBI, after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Headley visited India again in March 2009 to conduct more surveillance, including of the NDC in Delhi and of Chabad houses. The NIA has also filed a forgery case against Rana for using fake documents to open the immigration centre in Mumbai for Headley.
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