The US Supreme Court has rejected 26/11 accused Tahawwur Rana's application seeking a stay on his extradition to India. His plea claiming potential torture in India due to his Pakistani Muslim identity was dismissed.
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00:00Big news coming in, USA Supreme Court rejecting 2611 accused Tahawwar Rana's
00:06application. He was seeking a stay on his extradition to India and the judge
00:11refusing to grant a stay on the extradition which has been very clearly
00:15announced, approved by the USA administration. He will be extradited to
00:19India, he will have to face the book. For the massacre in many ways he oversaw, he
00:25knew, he was here in Mumbai, he did the recce, he was known and has been accused
00:29of being in coordination with the Pakistan handlers who were then
00:34preparing to come into Mumbai and we know what happened on 2611 leading to
00:39the loss of life of over 150 innocent individuals, not just Indians remember,
00:45different nationalities and ethnicities. Counsel for Tahawwar Rana renewing his
00:49emergency application previously addressed to a different judge and
00:52requesting now that the application should be placed before the Chief
00:56Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Now what does the plea say? I will
01:00be tortured in India, do not send me, do not extradite me. His plea has said that
01:06being a Pakistani Muslim, I'll be tortured in India.
01:13Joining me now, senior advocate who's been a special prosecutor as well, Ujwal
01:19Nikam who's in fact dealt with the 2611 case. Mr. Nikam, thank you for joining us
01:24this morning. Tahawwar Rana saying I am a Pakistani Muslim, they'll torture me,
01:28don't send me, but that application has been rejected. Tell us about the legal
01:32matter of it and what happens here on. At the outset, I'm very happy to note that
01:39US final court has rejected the nasty allegation which has been levelled by
01:47Tahawwar Rana in US Supreme Court. Not only that, it's a great success for India
01:53because ultimately Tahawwar Rana has tried to create rift between the two major
02:00communities in India. Let me tell you very frankly to you and to your viewers
02:05that even the trial of Ajmal Kassad which I had conducted in Mumbai court, Ajmal Kassad
02:12had never raised such type of nasty allegation in the open court. We have
02:19conducted trial of 26 November in open court and even the Pakistan did not raise
02:25any voice saying that Kassad was not fairly tried or he was ill-treated etc.
02:32But now Tahawwar Rana's this false allegation that Pakistan Muslim will be
02:39tortured was without any rational foundation and ultimately the US Supreme
02:44Court judge has summarily rejected his trial. So what do you call this then? Do you
02:51think these are delaying tactics that the accused Tahawwar Rana is indulging in?
02:56This is not the only delaying tactics but I must say this is a crooked tactics led
03:02by Tahawwar Rana that will show that he was earlier he was serving in the
03:07Pakistan army as a doctor and physician to the Pakistani army officials that
03:12shows that he is close nexus. Why he is scared of so much things? Because if he is
03:17a clean he should face the trial and India is such a big democratic country
03:22wherein everybody will be fairly tried giving due opportunity to everyone. My
03:28final question here Mr. Nikam is because the whole Kassab case that you also
03:33handled and it was such a high-profile case tell me how much of Tahawwar Rana
03:37did find a mention in it his involvement the fact that he was in Mumbai in many
03:42ways coordinating supervising what Ajmal Kassab and his group was then
03:47designated to do? See let me tell you very clearly that Tahawwar Rana is involved in
03:54the larger criminal conspiracy. Yes. I may remind you before the attack of 26th
04:00November the right henchman of Tahawwar Rana that is David Equaliman had visited
04:06Mumbai prior to the attack. He took the photograph of the various places. He has also visited Pune and as well as the Delhi some places. So this David Hegdee which was allowed by Tahawwar Rana and
04:28Tahawwar Rana though he was a doctor he was running the fake business of immigration and under that
04:34bannership he was indulging in various nasty activities, severe activities
04:40concerning about Al-Qaeda and etc. So I think his catch and his extradition to
04:47India will expose many things. Really appreciate you joining us and speaking
04:54to India today. Ujwal Nikam he was a special public prosecutor he was one of
04:58the reasons that Ajmal Kassab could be via legal process then sent to the
05:02gallows. Remember India ensured that there will be a fair proper trial even
05:07when it came to the terrorist Ajmal Kassab and now India wants to bring to
05:11the book Tahawwar Rana as well. I want to bring in India today's legal editor
05:15Nalini Sharma here for the latest on that. Nalini while people talk a lot
05:20about Ajmal Kassab because he was the one who indulged in that massacre but
05:24his role as Tahawwar Rana's role also is very significant as India considers it.
05:29Tell us about this legal tactics that he's using to avoid extradition to India.
05:36Well Ujwal it seems to be only a delay tactic at this point because Tahawwar Rana's pleas earlier at the lower court and also in the court of appeals has been rejected so there's been no relief coming in for him and now
05:49even the US Supreme Court has rejected to grant a stay on his extradition. What
05:55that essentially means is that the deck is now clear for Tahawwar Rana to be
05:59sent back to India because the US authorities had assured him that they
06:03will not hand him over to Indian agencies till the time the stay
06:08application is decided by the court and now that a decision has come from the
06:12court on his stay application it essentially means that he can be handed
06:16over to the Indian authorities. At the same time his lawyers are trying every
06:21trick in the book so they have asked for an appeal before the Chief Justice of
06:26the US Supreme Court directly. Now as to whether or not that's going to play any
06:31role in the entire extradition process is something that remains to be seen
06:35whether the Supreme Court will even be willing to entertain such a plea but for
06:40now the Supreme Court has made it clear there will be no stay on his extradition. The US
06:43authorities are free to hand over Tahawwar Rana to the Indian agencies and it can be
06:48expected that his extradition the final process will soon begin now after the
06:52Supreme Court order. So Nalini then what are we expecting because this came
06:57after a full-on announcement declaration by Donald Trump himself and Prime
07:01Minister Modi was in the USA. Are we looking at possibly weeks if not months
07:06till he could be extradited to the country? Well Pooja there are not many
07:11options available to him now the fact that the US Supreme Court has rejected
07:15granting the stay but there is another habeas corpus petition that he had filed
07:21pending in the US Supreme Court that specifically talks about the fact that
07:26he has apprehensions that he might be tortured or even killed if he is sent
07:30back to India. There is no decision on that habeas corpus petition yet. But to
07:35hear that habeas corpus petition he had to first ask for a stay on his
07:39extradition which the Supreme Court itself has denied. So it seems that there
07:43is not too much merit in his plea that is pending before the US Supreme Court
07:48but we can expect for the process to soon be put into motion because he was
07:53given time only till 28th of February to file an appeal and to ask for a stay
07:59which he did do and they were waiting for the Supreme Court order to come in
08:03in on his stay application which also now has come in as of 6th of March. So it
08:08remains to be seen exactly how early we can begin to start putting the wheels of
08:12justice into motion but there is no doubt about the fact that India will now
08:17definitely be able to get the Havur Rana back. We have not seen any kind of
08:21relief coming in for him either from the lower court or the court of appeal and
08:25now even from the Supreme Court it's a massive setback that has been given to him. He will
08:29have to come back to India. He will have to be tried for his crimes and it remains
08:34to be seen how the trial then proceeds.
09:05Eventually they chose Mumbai. He was in touch with the Pakistan handlers so how they could come in and then kill innocent people
09:15Indians, Israelis, Jewish otherwise as well and he was seen as a co-conspirator by the NIA charge sheet with David Coleman Headley
09:24and eventually remember Headley had gone to the US meeting Rana in 2006 discussing the future action plan.
09:32This was a long thought process. He may not have killed people directly. He was fully involved in arranging that to happen.
09:40Think about that for a second and India wants to extradite him to bring him to book and show him that India will bring justice to the people who are no more.
09:51The ones because of him and his people who were killed.