Mumbai terror attack convict Tahawwur Rana will face trial in India as a court in the United States cleared his extradition, dismissing his review petition against the move, reported PTI. 


New Delhi had been seeking Rana's extradition, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, as he was wanted in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks case.


This was his last legal chance to withhold his extradition to India. Earlier, he had lost a  legal battle in several federal courts, including the US Court of Appeals for the North Circuit in San Francisco.


On November 13, Rana filed a "petition for a writ of certiorari" before the US Supreme Court. The petition was denied by the apex court on January 21, a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as the President of the United States.


“Petition DENIED,” the Supreme Court said, according to the PTI report.



The Mumbai terror attack convict is currently detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles.


The US government had earlier argued in the court that the petition for a writ of certiorari should be denied.


US Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar had made the argument in the filing before the Supreme Court. She also argued that Rana was not entitled to relief from extradition to India in this case.


In his petition, Rana had argued that he was tried and acquitted in federal court in the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago) on charges relating to the 2008 terrorist attack 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 disagreed, saying: "The government does not concede that all of the conduct on which India seeks extradition was covered by the 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.”


“It is not clear that the jury’s verdict in this case— which involves conspiracy charges and was somewhat difficult to parse — means that he has been “convicted or acquitted” on all of the specific conduct that India has charged,” Prelogar had said.


The 64-year-old Canadian-Pakistani national is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.


A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the terrorist attacks at iconic and vital locations of Mumbai on November 26, 2008.