As 26/11 terror accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana arrived in India Thursday, Congress accused the Narendra Modi-led authorities of falsely taking credit score for his extradition, which it mentioned was the fruits of years of painstaking diplomatic and authorized efforts led and sustained by the UPA authorities.
In an announcement, Congress chief P Chidambaram, who was the Union residence minister when the NIA took over the probe into the phobia assaults, mentioned that Rana’s extradition was not a “robust chief” second, however “the gradual wheels of justice, pushed ahead by years of arduous work”.
In an interview to News18 Wednesday, Union Dwelling Minister Amit Shah mentioned that Rana’s extradition to India was a “huge diplomatic achievement of the Modi authorities” and focused the Congress saying “he couldn’t be dropped at India by these beneath whose authorities the assaults befell”.
Chidambaram mentioned he was glad Rana might be introduced again however claimed the reality was removed from the Modi authorities’s spin. “This extradition is the fruits of a decade-and-a-half of painstaking diplomatic, authorized and intelligence efforts which had been initiated, led, and sustained by the UPA authorities in shut coordination with the US,” Chidambaram mentioned in his assertion.
Underlining that the Modi authorities didn’t provoke this course of, nor did it safe any new breakthrough, he mentioned, “It merely benefited from the mature, constant, and strategic diplomacy begun beneath the UPA.”
In line with Chidambaram, the coursework started on November 11, 2009, when the NIA registered a case in New Delhi towards David Coleman Headley (US citizen), Tahawwur Rana (Canadian citizen), and others concerned within the 26/11 conspiracy.
That very month, Chidambaram claimed, Canada’s Overseas Minister confirmed collaboration with Indian companies, “because of UPA’s efficient international coverage”.
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He mentioned after his arrest in Chicago when Rana was acquitted of a number of the prices, the UPA authorities had publicly expressed its disappointment and stored diplomatic strain alive.
“Regardless of authorized setbacks, the UPA authorities endured by institutional diplomacy and authorized mechanisms. A 3-member NIA workforce interrogated Headley within the US earlier than the tip of 2011, primarily based on mutual authorized cooperation frameworks beneath the MLAT. The US authorities transferred essential proof to India, which grew to become a part of the NIA’s chargesheet filed in December 2011 towards 9 accused, together with Rana,” Chidambaram mentioned.
He mentioned the Particular NIA Courtroom in Delhi issued non-bailable warrants, and Interpol Pink Notices had been secured for the absconding accused. “This was not a media stunt however quiet, decided authorized diplomacy,” he mentioned.
In line with Chidamabaram, in 2012, then Exterior Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid after which Overseas Secretary Ranjan Mathai took up the matter of extradition of Headley and Rana with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Below Secretary Wendy Sherman.
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By January 2013, Headley was sentenced to 35 years, and Rana’s sentencing within the US additionally befell, he mentioned.
“India’s demand for Headley’s extradition was reiterated firmly, even because the UPA authorities expressed its disappointment on the sentence. Then Ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao additionally pursued the matter constantly. This was a textbook instance of how delicate problems with worldwide justice must be dealt with by diplomacy,” Chidamabaram mentioned.
Even after the federal government modified in 2014, he mentioned that it was the institutional efforts already in movement that stored the case alive.
“In February 2025, Prime Minister Modi and President Trump stood at a press convention and tried to take credit score for what was basically the results of years of UPA-era groundwork,” he mentioned.