US top court rejects Tahawwur Rana's last plea against India extradition

The US Supreme Court has denied 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana's last application seeking a stay on his extradition to India, moving him closer to being handed over to Indian authorities to face justice. The three-day attacks on hotels, a train station and a Jewish center in Mumbai in which 166 people were killed began on November 26, 2008. India says Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba orchestrated the attacks. Pakistan's government denies being involved. Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin who was based in Chicago, was convicted in 2011 and later sentenced to 13 years in prison. He is currently lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles.
A National Investigation Agency (NIA) official said the agency expects the US authorities to soon convey the dates when its team could travel to the US to bring Rana to India to face trial. Rana had approached chief justice John G Roberts Jr. after Supreme Court's justice Elena Kagan on March 6 declined to entertain his plea. The US Supreme Court on January 21 rejected Rana’s plea against extradition to India and his surrender to NIA was approved by the Donald Trump administration during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Washington last month.