Centre appoints top legal team to prosecute 26/11 accused Tahawwur Rana
New Delhi, May 1: The Central government has appointed a high-powered team of special public prosecutors (SPPs) to handle the trial of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Pakistani-origin Canadian-American who was extradited from the United States to India last month in the long-delayed prosecution of one of the accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
The legal team will be headed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, and includes Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju and senior advocates Dayan Krishnan and Narender Mann.
The team will represent the National Investigation Agency (NIA) before the designated special court in Delhi, as well as in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court, if required rports Bar and Bench. Rana, currently in judicial custody until June 6, is accused of conspiring to support the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks that left over 170 people dead and hundreds injured. His extradition marks a milestone in India’s efforts to bring key conspirators of the attacks to justice, nearly 17 years after the attack that shook the nation.
Born in Pakistan in 1961, Rana once served as a doctor in the Pakistani Army before migrating to Canada in the 1990s and later acquiring American citizenship. He was a close associate of David Coleman Headley, the Pakistani-American terrorist who conducted surveillance missions of targets in Mumbai prior to the attack. Headley, who turned approver for US authorities, is currently serving a prison sentence in the United States. In his deposition to Indian courts via video link, he claimed that Rana provided both financial and logistical support for his trips to India, which were used to map out targets for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based terrorist group that masterminded the attack.
According to Indian intelligence and court filings, Rana had direct links to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistani Army, and LeT operatives. His involvement is viewed as critical in establishing the institutional backing for the Mumbai plot from within Pakistan’s security establishment. The move to assign top law officers to the case signals the Centre’s intent to fast-track the prosecution, which has wide-ranging diplomatic, legal, and counterterrorism implications. The 26/11 attacks remain one of the deadliest terrorist incidents in India’s history and continue to be a sticking point in India-Pakistan relations. Officials stated that the trial will be pursued with “the utmost seriousness” and that the government is determined to hold every individual involved in the attack accountable, regardless of the time it takes.
