Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, who led India's arguments for the extradition of 26/11 accused Tahawwur Rana in a US court, is set to lead the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) prosecution in Delhi.
Rana, a close associate of 26/11 main conspirator David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani, a US citizen, is learnt to be on his way to India after the US Supreme Court on April 4 dismissed his review plea against his extradition to India.
Krishnan, who has been associated with the extradition proceedings since 2010, will have assistance from Special Prosecutor Narender Mann, a seasoned criminal lawyer, who has earlier represented the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Delhi High Court.
The prosecution team will also comprise advocates Sanjeevi Sheshadri and Sridhar Kale aside from the NIA counsel, it is learnt.
The turning point in the extradition case came in May 2023. Rana's trial had begun in 2018.
"The most important decision of his extradition came on May 16, 2023, being the first judgment by the Magistrate Judge, US District Court of Central District of California," said a source close to the extradition proceedings.
The Magistrate Court while allowing the extradition confirmed Krishnan's opinion -- he argued that Rana's case was not of double jeopardy.
The proceedings, the source said, saw a spirited legal fight between Krishnan and another extradition veteran Paul Garlick QC, who was representing Rana.
Garlick, the source said, argued that it was a case of double jeopardy. Krishnan, on the contrary, argued that an accused's conduct didn't determine the circumstances but the elements of the crime.
Double jeopardy, in legal parlance, means an accused being punished twice for the same offence or crime.
The submissions of Krishnan, who represented the government of India along with the US Department of Justice, were accepted by the court.
The second crucial milestone for the Indian government came when Rana's appeal was dismissed by a US District Judge on August 10, 2023.
Following the dismissal of his appeal, Rana moved the US Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, but was faced with another setback for his plea was rejected on August 15, 2024, the source said.
Rana, 64, a Pakistan-born Canadian national, then moved the US Supreme Court, which denied him any reprieve on January 21, 2025.
Finally, on April 4, the US Supreme Court dismissed the review plea filed by Rana as a last-ditch attempt, finally paving the way for his extradition, the source added.
On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists went on a rampage, carrying out a coordinated attack in Mumbai's CST, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre, after they sneaked into India's financial capital using the sea route in the Arabian Sea. The three-day terror siege killed 166 people.
