Naval war-room case hearing on Feb. 8
The extradition case of Ravi Shankaran, the main accused in the Naval war-room leak case, was on Wednesday deferred for the next hearing on February 8, 2013.
Forty-eight-year-old Shankaran, a close relative of the then Naval Chief Admiral Arun Prakash, has faced an Interpol red corner notice since 2006. He was arrested by the Metropolitan police on April 21, 2010 in London and has been fighting his extradition to India since then.
District judge Nicholas Evans at Westminster magistrates’ court will now examine evidence whether there is a prima facie case against Mr Shankaran despite issuing a written judgment on December 19, 2011 that there was a prima facie case against Mr Shankaran and an extradition trial against him could proceed.
Mr Shankaran’s legal team, led by barrister James Lewis QC, argued in a short hearing on Wednesday that the Indian government’s insistence that Mr Shankaran had used the assumed identity of Vic Branson had no basis as the evidence the CBI had forwarded for this was “inadmissible hearsay”.
The CBI evidence is based on an affidavit by Mr Khushwaha, who the defence claimed had given the statement in Hindi but it was recorded by CBI directly on a computer in English, not shown to him and was unsigned.
The defence contended that this statement should not be accepted “unless Mr Khushwaha gives live evidence to the effect in the UK court”.
However, the prosecution team, led by barrister John Hardy QC, dismissed the defence contention that the evidence by Mr Khushwaha could have been doctored.
“If the CBI was so manipulative, then why did it take them three tries to show the evidence they wanted to, if what defence says is correct,” he said.
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