THE US Supreme Court has turned down a review petition by terror accused Tahawwur Rana, dismissing his last legal challenge against his extradition to India in connection with the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people in 2008.
“Petition DENIED,” the Supreme Court said. The apex court's order came on January 21, a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as the US president.
Earlier, Rana lost legal battles in several federal courts, including the US Court of Appeals for the North Circuit in San Francisco.
Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, on November 13 filed a “petition for a writ of certiorari” before the US Supreme Court to review the lower court's ruling.
Rana, who is currently detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, is associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators.
Headley obtained Rana’s consent to open an office of First World Immigration Services as a cover for his activities in India.
Earlier, the US government had argued in the court that the petition for a writ of certiorari should be denied.
In a filing before the Supreme Court on December 16, US solicitor general Elizabeth B Prelogar said Rana was not entitled to relief from extradition to India in this case.
In his petition, Rana argued that he was tried and acquitted in federal court in the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago) on charges relating to the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai.
"India now seeks to extradite him for trial on charges based on the identical conduct at issue in the Chicago case,” it said.
Prelogar contended that all of the conduct on which India seeks extradition was not covered by the US government’s prosecution in this case.
"For example, India’s forgery charges are based in part on conduct that was not charged in the United States: petitioner’s use of false information in an application to formally open a branch office of the Immigration Law Center submitted to the Reserve Bank of India,” the US Solicitor General had said.
A total of 166 people, including six Americans and six Israelis, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking people at various locations of Mumbai.
Nine terrorists were killed and Ajmal Kasab was captured alive. He was hanged four years later on November 21, 2012. (PTI)
This photograph taken on April 28, 2026 shows a boy getting "thali", a sacred thread tied to his neck symbolising marriage to Hindu warrior god Aravan during the annual Koovagam transgender festival at the Koothandavar temple in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi district. For a few fleeting days each year, at the heart of the Koothandavar Temple where ostracised transgender community members from across India come to honour the Hindu deity Aravan, a tradition rooted in millennia-old Hindu texts -- and to enjoy a brief oasis of freedom.Getty Images
This photograph taken on April 29, 2026 shows a member of the transgender community mourning as a priest cuts the "thali", a sacred thread symbolising end of her marriage to Hindu warrior god Aravan during the annual Koovagam transgender festival at the Koothandavar temple in Tamil Nadu's Kallakurichi district. For a few fleeting days each year, at the heart of the Koothandavar Temple where ostracised transgender community members from across India come to honour the Hindu deity Aravan, a tradition rooted in millennia-old Hindu texts -- and to enjoy a brief oasis of freedom. Getty Images