Mumbai Crime Branch files chargesheet against Tahawwur Rana in 26/11 terror attack case

MUMBAI: Mumbai police's crime branch has filed the fourth supplementary chargesheet in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack on Monday.

The crime branch has named Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana in the 405-page chargesheet.

Rana is accused of being an operative of ISI and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

In the chargesheet, Rana is accused of supporting the 26/11 attacks' mastermind David Coleman Headley, who conducted the recce of the Mumbai attacks.

Rana had stayed in a hotel in Mumbai for 10 days before the terrorist attack, the crime branch has submitted a copy of Rana's passport in the charge sheet which Rana had submitted while staying in the hotel. Rana had booked a hotel room in his name from November 11 to November 21, 2008.

The hotel stay and other evidence that the police received from the hotel, have been filed in the charge sheet. Tahawwur Rana is currently lodged in jail in the United States in the case of the murder of a journalist. The case may be heard in court today.

Earlier, Ujjwal Nikam, the special public prosecutor of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case, had said the possible extradition of Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana, an accused in the case, was now a question of a few months.

“It would all depend now on the US administration as to when Tahawwur Rana is to be sent back to India for trial. The moot question is where he will be tried, whether in the NIA court at Delhi or elsewhere, those questions will be decided by the investigating agency,” the special public prosecutor of the 26/11 case added.

Nikam’s statement came on the heels of US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel’s remarks to call for those involved in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks to be brought to justice. Patel, however, said that the extradition process of Tahawwur Rana is a “pending matter”.

A US court denied the writ of habeas corpus filed by Tahawwur Rana, paving the way for US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to issue a certification for him to be extradited to India, where he is facing charges of his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Rana was arrested in the US on an extradition request by India for his role in the Mumbai attacks that killed 175 people, including six Americans. Indian authorities allege that Rana conspired with his childhood friend David Coleman Headley to assist the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba in orchestrating the terror attacks.

David Headley had pleaded guilty and testified against Rana. The 26/11 Mumbai attacks, started on the evening of November 26, 2008, shook the city of Mumbai.

Ten terrorists infiltrated into Mumbai from Pakistan using the sea route and carried out a series of attacks that resulted in the death of 175 people.

The attackers had targeted prominent locations like the Leopold Cafe, Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, The Trident Hotel, CST Railway Station, and the Nariman House.