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Critical Topics and Their Significance for the UPSC CSE Examination on April 23, 2025

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 National Investigation Agency (NIA)

For Preliminary Examination:  Current events of national and international Significance

For Mains Examination: GS II - Governance

Context:

More than 16 years after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, Tahawwur Rana, one of the key conspirators, was finally extradited to India from the US to face trial.

Read about:

What is the National Investigation Agency (NIA)?

 What is the India-US extradition treaty?

Key takeaways:

• The India-United States extradition treaty, signed in June 1997, laid down a formal legal structure to facilitate the transfer of individuals accused or convicted of serious crimes in either nation.

• For an offence to qualify for extradition under this treaty, it must be punishable by more than one year of imprisonment in both countries.

• The treaty excludes political offences from extradition. However, certain acts—including the murder or intentional attack on a Head of State or their family, hijacking, sabotage in aviation, attacks on internationally protected persons, and hostage-taking—are explicitly not classified as political offences.

• By 2023, India had formal extradition treaties in place with 48 nations and extradition arrangements with 12 additional countries.

• Tahawwur Hussain Rana, an associate of Lashkar-e-Taiba operative David Coleman Headley, was taken into custody by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) immediately upon his arrival, following the completion of required legal procedures. A medical check was also conducted at the airport.

• Rana, a Pakistani-Canadian national and former member of the Pakistan Army Medical Corps, is accused of providing essential logistical support to the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He had been arrested in Chicago in October 2009, nearly a year after the incident.

• The NIA stated that it had “successfully secured the extradition of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, one of the key planners behind the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks,” after years of coordinated and persistent efforts to ensure he faces justice in India.

• Rana’s extradition was announced two months after then-U.S. President Donald Trump, standing alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House, declared: “Today, I am pleased to announce that my administration has approved the extradition of one of the plotters of the horrific Mumbai terrorist attack. He will now return to India to face justice.”