US SC to hear in April Tahawwur Rana's appeal against extradition

NEW YORK: US Supreme Court justices will hear next month Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana's renewed application, submitted to Chief Justice John Roberts, seeking a stay of his extradition to India.

Rana, 64, is currently lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles and submitted an "Emergency Application For Stay Pending Litigation of Petition For Writ of Habeas Corpus" on February 27, 2025 with Elena Kagan, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit.

Earlier this month, Kagan had denied the application.

Rana had then renewed his "Emergency Application for Stay Pending Litigation of Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus previously addressed to Justice Kagan," and requested that the renewed application be directed to Chief Justice Roberts.

An order on the Supreme Court website noted that Rana's renewed application has been "distributed for Conference of 4/4/2025" and "application" has been "referred to the Court." Rana is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.

Headley conducted a recce of Mumbai before the attacks by posing as an employee of Rana's immigration consultancy.

Rana was convicted in the US of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the plot in Denmark and one count of providing material support to Pakistan-based terror body Lashker-e-Taiba.