Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana tried to stay his extradition to India by alleging that he would be tortured in India as he was "a Muslim of Pakistani origin". But, his last-ditch attempt to evade justice failed after the US Supreme Court rejected his emergency application against extradition to India.
As per the update that appeared on the Supreme Court Website on March 6, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Elena Kagan denied Rana's application. Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. The Emergency Application For Stay was filed with the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit.
Rana's main argument in the petition was that his extradition to India was a violation of the US law and the United Nations Convention Against Torture. He argued that he would be in danger of being tortured in India. In his case, the likelihood of torture was even higher as he was a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks.
He argued that if the stay is not entered, there will be no review at all, and the US courts will lose jurisdiction, and the petitioner will soon be dead. Rana's petition also cited that he suffered from "severe medical conditions" that would turn into a "de facto" death sentence if he is extradited to Indian detention facilities. He submitted medical records from July 2024 that showed he had 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.
Rana has earlier too tried to prevent his extradition, even employing a British barrister and Queen’s Counsel Paul Garlick, who argued for the benefit of double jeopardy to prevent the extradition. Rana had also made another appeal against the US State Department's order to delay the process on humanitarian grounds.
On May 16, 2023, a magistrate judge in California ordered that Rana be extraditable to India for his alleged participation in the 26/11 terror attacks.