Waiting for the fugitive

All 177 member countries of Interpol nodded at India’s proposal to approach the UN and set the ball rolling for a global extradition treaty. If everything goes according to the plan, all these countries will soon be exchanging fugitives. “While we are making efforts at a government-to-government level, breakthrough will come once the international treaty is a reality. Then we and even Pakistan, with whom we neither have a treaty nor any legal agreement, will be bound to entertain requests for extraditing terrorists and smugglers,” adds Sherwani.

The nods, signatures and the enthusiasm at the Interpol meet notwithstanding, international treaty on extradition seems a distant reality. In fact, early this year, UAE authorities responded to India’s request to extradite Dawood Ibrahim saying that they have not even heard of him. Officials, though optimistic about signing treaties, say they cannot imagine Dawood being handed over by Pakistan.

For India, more than perhaps any other country, the international treaty on extradition is critical for closing some of the most crucial crime files: the Bombay bomb blasts case, the Purulia arms drop case, the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Hawala scam, the Urea Scam and the Gulshan Kumar murder case. The main accused in these cases continue to enjoy the hospitality of foreign countries.

The scoreboard of India’s requests to other countries for extradition shows a mix of disappointments and breakthroughs.

Niranjan Shah, an accused in the securities scam, was deported from Dubai in 1993; Early this year, Daya Singh Lahoria and his wife Suman Sood were extradited from the USA to face trial in the case of a murder attempt on Maninder Singh Bitta and in a kidnapping case; and last month, two Karsan officials, Tunkay Altinkas and Cihan Karanci, accused in the Rs 133-crore urea scam were extradited by the Swiss authorities. “Soon, the US will be deporting Suki and Kuki, involved in the murder of Lalit Maken and the killing of three police officials in Jaipur respectively,” says an official.

However, India’s attempts at extraditing criminals has a chapter which most officials hesitate to discuss. The cases of Anis Ibrahim, Iqbal Mirchi and Amir Bhai fall in this chapter.

Early last year, Anis, Dawood Ibrahim’s brother and an accused in the Bombay bomb blasts case, was arrested in Bahrain following an Interpol alert. CBI officials flew to Bahrain with documents pertaining to the crimes he had committed in India. And Bahrain authorities, after scrutinising the evidence, assured officials that Anis would be accompanying them back to India.

However, within a day, Dubai said it wanted Anis for a crime — which was allegedly stage-managed to save him from Bahrain — he had committed there.

Iqbal Mirchi’s case went up for trial in London’s Bow Street Court, which ruled, that India did not have sufficient evidence against him. He was wanted in numerous cases of smuggling and murders. Amir Bhai, wanted in the Jain Hawala case, also escaped the Indian dragnet because of insufficient evidence.

“Problems in extraditing criminals,” CBI spokesperson S.M. Khan says, “include the need for dual criminality. What constitutes a crime in India should be a punishable offense in the country from which the criminal has to be extradited.” This, however, is almost exclusive to cases relating to foreign exchange violations.

Another problem in extraditing criminals, Khan explained, is that many countries, including Pakistan, do not even have the provision to arrest someone for a crime committed in another country. “Unlike the Indian law, which makes a crime committed in another country punishable in India, many countries don’t have this provision and therefore do not even entertain the Interpol’s Red Corner Alert,” Khan adds.

Officials claim that India has been cooperating with “requesting states” on extraditions. Though a request by the UAE to extradite four criminals was recently turned down and many others are still pending, India ordered the extradition of a Canadian of Indian origin to Canada this year. Darshan Kumar, wanted in a case of fraud registered by his wife in Canada, had been arrested by the Delhi police in April 1996 and his extradition was decided in less than a year.

Another case in which files at the lethargic Tis Hazari court moved in record time was that of biscuit king Rajan Pillai. Wanted by Singapore authorities — who had deported Babloo Srivastava to India following an Interpol Red Corner alert — Pillai, however, died in judicial custody before he could be deported. Perhaps the most famous demand for extradition that India received was that of Charles Sobhraj’s.

He was not extradited for 20 years despite Thailand’s repeated requests. He checkmated the Indian legal system by registering criminal cases in India against officials of the Tihar jail. When this started to wear off, he escaped from the jail and and later conveniently staged his own arrest in a Goan pub.