Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said the Narendra Modi government will hang 26/11 Mumbai terror attack key accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana during the Bihar Assembly elections due later this year.
Rana was extradited to India on Thursday and arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) soon after his arrival at the Delhi airport.
"Rana should be immediately hanged but he will be hanged during the Bihar polls (scheduled later this year)," Raut told news agency PTI, in an apparent allegation that the BJP will use it for political gains.
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The ruling BJP-JD(U) alliance is in direct fight with the Congress-RJD combo in the state. The BJP, according to reports, is keen on improving its tally so that it can claim the chief minister post if the alliance comes to power.
The Sena (UBT) leader further noted that the extradition of Rana was a 16-year-old battle and it started during the Congress rule.
"So no one should take the credit of bringing back Rana," he said.
He further pointed out that Rana was not the first accused to be extradited to India. “In the past, 1993 serial blast accused Abu Salem too was extradited to India,” he said.
Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin, landed in Delhi in a special plane from Los Angeles Thursday evening. He was held in judicial custody in the US following proceedings initiated under the India-US Extradition Treaty for his extradition.
Rana is accused of conspiring with operatives of various terrorist organisations to carry out the attacks in Mumbai in 2008, in which a total of 166 people were killed and over 238 injured.
