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In a verdict that “disappointed” India, a US jury cleared Pakistan-born Canadian Tahawwur Rana of charges that he helped with the Mumbai attack while convicting him of supporting the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group blamed for the carnage.
The Indian government stressed it was still carrying out investigations against Rana, but the Bharatiya Janata Party said New Delhi had not done enough to get him convicted for the Mumbai attack.
Rana, 50, was held “not guilty” by a jury in the famed Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago on Thursday, bringing some relief to the terror suspect and his family present. It was a major victory for the defence because the guilt would have meant life in prison.
As judge Harry D Leinenweber acquitted him for the 2008 slaughter of 166 people, including six Americans, in Mumbai, his wife, mother and some other family members huddled together in prayer in the court.
But the verdict disappointed the Indian government, which had been monitoring the court proceedings to file charges in India against Rana and his close friend David Coleman Headley, who has confessed to filming 26/11 terror sites and other potential terror targets.
“We are disappointed that Rana was acquitted on the count of conspiracy to provide material support to the Mumbai terrorist attack,” U K Bansal, secretary (internal security) in the home ministry, told reporters in New Delhi.
Bansal said the National Investigation Agency (NIA), probing the case in India against Headley and Rana, was waiting for the proceedings to conclude before filing a chargesheet against them in India.
“The NIA has sought documents and evidence produced in the US court and expects to receive them,” he said. Bansal said the US court verdict comes despite evidence produced in the US court that Headley had advised Rana of his assignment to scout targets in India.
He added Rana had told Headley that the terrorists killed in Mumbai should “receive Pakistan’s highest military honours posthumously”.
The opposition lashed out at the Congress-led government for not doing enough to get Rana convicted over the Mumbai attack.
“The US declaring Tahawwur Rana innocent (for) Mumbai has disgraced the sovereignty of India. It is a major foreign policy setback,” Gujarat’s BJP Chief Minsiter Narendra Modi tweeted.