The Biden administration has asked the court in California to reject the writ of habeas corpus submitted by Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman, and to uphold the US court’s decision to extradite him to India for his part in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Rana is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles. US attorney E Martin Estrada argued that Rana can’t demonstrate that India’s extradition request does not contain enough evidence of probable cause. In June, Rana filed a writ of habeas corpus disputing the court order that authorized the US government to extradite him. He maintained that his extradition would breach the US-India extradition treaty in two ways. Firstly, he had already been tried and acquitted in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois for the same crime that India wishes to prosecute him for. Secondly, the documents provided by India do not show probable cause that he committed the offences with which he has been charged. Estrada responded that Rana’s claims about his legitimate business in Mumbai are not supported by the evidence and even if they were, it would not rule out the possibility that the business was used as a cover for his childhood friend David Coleman Headley’s terror-related activities in Mumbai. He also asserted that the warning Rana received prior to the attacks does not negate probable cause and that Rana’s statement that he did not check Headley’s visa application is not reliable. India
