Centre Appoints SG Tushar Mehta To Lead Prosecution in 26/11 Mumbai Terror Case Against Tahawwur Rana
The Central Government has constituted a high-level team of Special Public Prosecutors (SPPs), led by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, to conduct the trial in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case against Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani-origin Canadian-American national recently extradited to India from the United States.
Rana, who is presently in judicial custody till June 6, is accused of aiding and abetting the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed over 160 people.
He is alleged to have provided logistical and financial support to Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, a key conspirator who is currently serving a prison sentence in the US.
Alongside SG Mehta, the prosecution team will include Additional Solicitor General SV Raju and Senior Advocates Dayan Krishnan and Advocate Narender Mann. They will represent the National Investigation Agency (NIA) before the Special Courts in Delhi, as well as the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India.
Rana, born in Pakistan in 1961, served as a medical officer in the Pakistani Army before migrating to Canada in the 1990s and becoming a Canadian citizen.
According to Indian intelligence agencies, he maintains links with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistani Army, and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the terror outfit responsible for orchestrating the 2008 attacks.
Headley had testified that Rana knowingly facilitated his reconnaissance missions in India ahead of the Mumbai attacks. The NIA is expected to rely on both documentary evidence and Headley’s statements in its case against Rana.