Batra added that he fully expects “that in calmer times CJ Roberts would deny Rana the right to stay in America and avoid facing justice in India.””During current times, with so many district judges blocking President Trump’s domestic agenda changes…the Supreme Court will enjoy denying Rana more easily. After President Trump and PM (Narendra) Modi met in the Oval, President Trump announced in the press conference that Rana will be extradited to India, to face his victims and his justice. The current posture is akin to a fish out of water, but moving around a lot to try to get back into American waters,” Batra said.Rana is seeking a stay of his extradition and surrender to India pending litigation (including exhaustion of all appeals) on the merits of a petition he filed on February 13.In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates United States law and the United Nations Convention Against Torture “because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, the petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture.””The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks,” the application said.The application also said that his “severe medical conditions” render extradition to Indian detention facilities a “de facto” death sentence in this case. It cited medical records from July 2024 that confirm Rana has multiple “acute and life-threatening diagnoses, including multiple documented heart attacks, Parkinson’s disease with cognitive decline, a mass suggestive of bladder cancer, stage 3 chronic kidney disease, and a history of chronic asthma, and multiple COVID-19 infections.”Accordingly, petitioner certainly has raised a credible, if not compelling, factual case that there are indeed substantial grounds for believing he would be in danger of torture if surrendered to Indian authorities.”Further, because of his Muslim religion, his Pakistani origin, his status as a former member of the Pakistani Army, the relation of the putative charges to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and his chronic health conditions he is even more likely to be tortured than otherwise would be the case, and that torture is very likely to kill him in short order.”The US Supreme Court denied Rana’s petition for writ of certiorari relating to his original habeas petition on January 21, 2025.The application notes that on that same day, newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio had met with External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar.When Prime Minister Modi arrived in Washington on February 12 to meet with Trump, Rana’s counsel received a letter from the Department of State, stating that “on February 11, 2025, the Secretary of State decided to authorize” Rana’s “surrender to India,” pursuant to the “Extradition Treaty between the United States and India.”
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