Tahawwur Rana not in custody of US Bureau of Prisons

New York: Mumbai terror attack case accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who is being extradited from the US, is not in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), the agency said.

According to information on the website of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Rana is “Not in BOP Custody” as of April 8, 2025.

An official at the agency told PTI Wednesday that Rana is not in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

“If an individual is listed as "Released" or "Not in BOP Custody" and no facility location is indicated, the inmate is no longer in BOP custody, however, the inmate may still be in the custody of some other correctional/criminal justice system/law enforcement entity, or on parole or supervised release,” the official said.

The “inmate locator” information on the website lists the register number for Rana as “22829-424”, his age, race and sex.

Rana, 64, is a Pakistan-born Canadian national and close associate of one of the main conspirators of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani, a Pakistani American citizen.

According to government sources on early Wednesday, Rana is expected to be extradited to India “shortly”.

A multi-agency team from India has gone to the US and all paperwork and legalities are being completed with the US authorities. Sources had said “very high possibility" that Rana “could be extradited shortly”.

The hugely significant development comes just days after Rana’s last-resort attempt to evade extradition to India failed after the US Supreme Court justices denied his application, moving him closer to being handed over to Indian authorities to face justice in the dastardly attacks.

Rana was lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles and had submitted an ‘Emergency Application For Stay Pending Litigation of Petition For Writ of Habeas Corpus' on February 27, 2025 with Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit Elena Kagan. Kagan had denied the application earlier last month.

Rana had then renewed his ‘Emergency Application for Stay Pending Litigation of Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus previously addressed to Justice Kagan’, and requested that the renewed application be directed to US Chief Justice John Roberts.

An order on the Supreme Court website had noted that Rana’s renewed application has been “distributed for Conference” on April 4 and the “application” has been “referred to the Court”.

A notice on the Supreme Court website Monday said that his application is "denied" by the court.

In his emergency application, Rana had sought a “stay of his extradition and surrender to India pending litigation (including exhaustion of all appeals) on the merits of his February 13, 2025 petition for a writ of habeas corpus “asserting, inter alia, that his extradition to India violates United States law… implementing the terms of the United Nations Convention Against Torture, because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture”.

“The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks,” the application said.

The application also said that his “severe medical conditions” render extradition to Indian detention facilities a “de facto" death sentence in this case.

It cited medical records from July 2024 that confirm Rana has multiple “acute and life-threatening diagnoses”, including multiple documented heart attacks, Parkinson’s disease with cognitive decline, a mass suggestive of bladder cancer, stage 3 chronic kidney disease, and a history of chronic asthma, and multiple COVID-19 infections.

“Accordingly, petitioner certainly has raised a credible, if not compelling, factual case that there are indeed substantial grounds for believing he would be in danger of torture if surrendered to Indian authorities.

"Further, because of his Muslim religion, his Pakistani origin, his status as a former member of the Pakistani Army, the relation of the putative charges to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and his chronic health conditions he is even more likely to be tortured than otherwise would be the case, and that torture is very likely to kill him in short order.”

The US Supreme Court denied Rana’s petition for writ of certiorari relating to his original habeas petition on January 21, 2025. The application notes that on that same day, newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio had met with External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Washington on February 12 to meet with US President Donald Trump, Rana’s counsel received a letter from the Department of State, stating that “on February 11, 2025, the Secretary of State decided to authorize” Rana’s "surrender to India,” pursuant to the “Extradition Treaty between the United States and India”.

Rana’s Counsel requested from the State Department the complete administrative record on which Secretary Rubio based his decision to authorise Rana’s surrender to India. The Counsel also requested immediate information of any commitment the United States has obtained from India with respect to Rana’s treatment. “The government declined to provide any information in response to these requests,” the application said.

It added that given Rana’s underlying health conditions and the State Department’s own findings regarding treatment of prisoners, it is very likely that he will not survive long enough to be tried in India.

During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Modi in the White House in February, President Trump had announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Tahawwur Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.

The India-US joint statement issued during the Prime Minister’s visit to US notes that Modi and Trump reaffirmed that the global scourge of terrorism must be fought and terrorist safe havens eliminated from every corner of the world.

“Recognising a shared desire to bring to justice those who would harm our citizens, the US announced that the extradition to India of Tahawwur Rana has been approved. The leaders further called on Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai, and Pathankot attacks and ensure that its territory is not used to carry out cross-border terrorist attacks.

"The leaders also pledged to work together to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems and to deny access to such weapons by terrorists and non-state actors,” the joint statement said.

On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists went on a rampage, carrying out a coordinated attack on a railway station, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre, after they sneaked into India's financial capital using the sea route in the Arabian Sea.

As many as 166 people were killed in the nearly 60-hour assault that sent shockwaves across the country and even brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.