Tahawwur Rana, accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, has petitioned the US Supreme Court to block his extradition to India. In his emergency application, Rana claims a significant risk of torture due to his Pakistani Muslim background if sent to India. The request was revealed in an exclusive report by India Today.
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00:00We are getting you an India Today exclusive news break now as in fact India awaits Tahavur
00:06Rana 26-11 terror accused extradition.
00:09There is a last ditch attempt being made by Rana to stay his extradition.
00:14We have learnt exclusively here on India Today that Tahavur Rana has approached the US Supreme
00:19Court seeking an emergency stay of his extradition.
00:23On what grounds?
00:24He says he will not survive long enough to be tried in India.
00:29We have accessed the application that Rana has put forth in the US Supreme Court where
00:33he said that if he is extradited to India he will be subjected to torture and because
00:38he is a Muslim of Pakistani origin he is going to be tortured in India and then he has gone
00:44on in his application to talk about discrimination against Muslims, put out documents and what
00:50not.
00:51Clearly you can see this is a desperate attempt by Tahavur Rana, the 26-11 mastermind knowing
00:56full well that finally justice will meet him, he will meet his fate here in India talking
01:02about torture, talking about how because he is a Muslim he is going to be targeted, how
01:07because he is a Pakistani he is going to be targeted and then he won't be alive if he
01:11is sent to India.
01:14Nalini Sharma legal editor is joining us with more details on this.
01:18Nalini a bizarre list of excuses that Tahavur Rana has put out establishes essentially his
01:24desperation not to be extradited to India.
01:27Well Akshita the most interesting thing that is coming out of this application is that
01:32Tahavur Rana himself has said in the application that the US government has assured him that
01:37till the time the US Supreme Court does not decide on his stay application they are not
01:42going to hand him over to the Indian authorities.
01:44So it remains to be seen how early the Supreme Court actually goes ahead and hears this application
01:48but at the same time what Tahavur Rana stated in this application that has been filed before
01:53the US Supreme Court he says that considering the fact that he is a Muslim of Pakistani
01:58origin and also the fact that the government in India is becoming increasingly autocratic
02:03which is something that has been documented in several reports that have been done by
02:07US agencies themselves and the report that he is citing is the US human rights watch
02:13report of 2023 where he is saying that it's noted in that the kind of persecution of religious
02:19minorities happen that happens in India and keeping that in mind there is a very very
02:23high likelihood that he will be subjected to extreme torture and would not even be able
02:29to face trial in India considering also the fact that he has several medical issues including
02:35an abdominal aneurysm that he has he's also suffering from Parkinson's.
02:40He says that the mass found in his body that might be cancerous.
02:43So considering all of these medical issues that he also has it should be considered by
02:48the court to stay his extradition so that the proceedings can continue in the US and
02:53this habeas corpus petition that he has filed can eventually be decided but for that it's
02:58important that he gets a stay right now.
03:00So that's what he's pushing for it remains to be seen whether or not that's granted but
03:04a lot of allegations being made.
03:06He's also relied on the case of arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari who was recently denied extradition
03:11from the UK by a UK court agreeing to the fact that he might be tortured in India.
03:16So the Havvarana is taking it one step further saying that considering he is Muslim considering
03:21he is Pakistani the threat of him facing torture is much higher and hence the court should
03:26consider this request.
03:28It remains to be seen whether or not that happens but no doubt about the fact that there's
03:31a large stitch effort coming in from him especially after the fact that both the US President
03:36as well as the Indian Prime Minister had to be together in a joint address confirmed to
03:41the media that he will in fact be extradited back to India.
03:44And that perhaps explains his desperation also with the kind of list of reasons that
03:49he's put out in that application he's submitted before the US Supreme Court.
03:52We'll track what happens in that hearing.
03:54Thanks Nalini for the moment.