NEW DELHI: The extradition of 26/11 attacks accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana could give more information about the involvement of Pakistan’s security apparatus in the incident, said public prosecutor in Mumbai case advocate Ujjwal Nikam on Saturday.
“By extraditing Tahawwur Rana, India will get more information and evidence of the involvement of some of the Pakistani people, including the Pakistan security apparatus,” he told ANI.
“David Headley has given such revelation and evidence in Mumbai court and also produced the email correspondence showing the links between Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistan ISI Army officers. I am very optimistic that the extradition of Tahawwur Rana will give more evidence about the involvement of some of the security apparatus of Pakistan,” he added.
The US Supreme Court cleared the extradition of Rana to India on Saturday. Reacting to this, Nikam said, “It’s a great success for India because the Supreme Court of America has dismissed the review petition of Tahawwur Rana. I say it’s a success for India because Tahawwur Rana and David Headley are the close links behind the terror attack of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.”
Rana opposed extradition but faced a setback on May 16, 2023, when the extradition magistrate judge ruled him extraditable, rejecting his arguments. He subsequently filed a writ petition in local courts, which were dismissed. He then approached the Supreme Court in November with another writ petition, which has now been denied.
India’s charges against Rana include conspiracy to commit multiple offenses such as waging war, murder, two types of forgery, and carrying out a terrorist act. Rana has remained in custody throughout the extradition proceedings.
Meanwhile Defence lawyer Ejaz Naqvi said that, ” The charge sheet for Tahawwur mentions that he was involved in providing so-called financial, covert, and Pakistani support to David Coleman Headley. He had deployed covert projects in Canada and used to transfer money from his business dealings related to poultry and livestock in the US. During the court proceedings in Mumbai, Headley had revealed that whatever money he used to get, it was mostly from Tahawwur’s companies… The friendship between Tahawwur and Headley is not new. They were both in the same class at the National Defence Academy in Pakistan… The 26/11 case was an off-shore conspiracy.”
“The Mumbai police and government of that time should have looked into this, yet knowingly or unknowingly they avoided it. From 2008 to 2010, the government and public prosecutors were hesitant to even take the name of Headley. The money that Janjua had transferred from Brescia or Italy to buy Walkie talkies, that money was also given by Tahawwur. The agencies are not making that link. When the FBI made the link to Headley, even then our agencies did not submit all the evidence. For the first time, we will see these things come out. People like Kasab were puppets… We had stated in Justice ML Tahaliyani’s court that Headley had named Tahawwur and Janjua and said that logistic support like purchasing electronic devices was done off-shore,” Naqvi added.