New Delhi: The Centre has appointed a special public prosecutor for the trial in the case of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack being probed by the National Investigation Agency, with accused co-conspirator Tahawwur Hussain Rana being extradited to India.
A team of an Inspector General and a Deputy Inspector General took custody of Rana in the US. They are expected to arrive in Delhi Thursday afternoon. Special arrangements have been made by the police and Rana will be produced in court via video conference.
In a gazette notification released Wednesday night, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that advocate Narender Mann will look after the trial process before a Special NIA court in Delhi and appellate courts in the case registered by NIA to probe a larger conspiracy behind the 2008 terror attack.
In November 2009, the NIA had registered a case against US citizen and Lashkar Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative David Coleman Headley, Canadian citizen and former doctor in Pakistan army Tahawwur Hussain Rana, and several of their handlers in Pakistan, including Sajid Mir.
In December 2011, NIA had filed a chargesheet in the case against nine accused that also included Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, LeT chief, as well as two officers of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, named Major Iqbal and Major Sameer Ali.
The trial in the case has been pending since all the accused were either in Pakistan or the United States. Rana will be the first to face the trial.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 15 of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008 (34 of 2008), read with sub-section (8) of section 18 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (BNSS), the Central Government hereby appoints Shri Narender Mann, Advocate as Special Public Prosecutor for conducting trial and other matters related to NIA case RC-04/2009/NIA/DLI on behalf of the National Investigation Agency before the NIA Special Courts at Delhi and Appellate Courts, for a period of three years from the date of publication of this notification or till the completion of trial of the said case, whichever is earlier,” the gazette notification read.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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