Ahead of the visit of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to India, the Canadian government started the legal process to revoke the citizenship of Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistan-born businessman who is currently in India and being tried for his alleged role in planning the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people.

Canada’s decision to begin this process is not based on terrorism charges, according to the official report. Instead, authorities have said it is linked to problems with how Rana described his residency when he applied for Canadian citizenship many years ago.

According to documents obtained by Global News, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has accused Rana of giving wrong information about where he lived when he applied for citizenship.

In the 2000 citizenship application, Rana wrote that he had lived in Ottawa and Toronto for four years, and that he had only been away from Canada for six days during that period. He had originally moved to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2001.

However, a later investigation by Canadian police found that he had actually spent most of that time in Chicago in the United States. In Chicago, he owned various properties and businesses, including an immigration consultancy and a grocery store.

In a letter dated May 31, 2024, the IRCC told Rana that he had misrepresented his time in Canada and had not declared his true absences from the country. The department described these actions as a “serious and deliberate deception” and said they showed a lack of respect for Canada’s citizenship laws.

The IRCC has now referred the matter to the Federal Court of Canada. This court will decide whether Rana’s citizenship was obtained through false representation or fraud. Only the court has the authority to rule on whether citizenship should be cancelled on these grounds.

Rana’s case has drawn attention because it involves someone facing trial in India for one of the deadliest terror attacks in the country’s history, and the Canadian move comes at a politically sensitive time just before PM Carney’s visit.