Purulia arms drop case: No extradition of Kim Davy for now
The Denmark authorities have refused to appeal in their Supreme Court against a decision of the lower court which had rejected extradition of Purulia arms drop case accused Kim Davy.
Official sources said the Danish authorities have not agreed to appeal in the Supreme Court against the decision of the High Court despite efforts by Indian agencies to convince them. They said the authorities have made it clear that the prosecutor is not under the control of the Danish government and his decision is considered final.
They said diplomatic options would be explored to bring Davy back to India to stand trial in the case. Intially, Denmark had accepted India's request for extraditing Davy but he challenged it in a city court in Copenhagen, which rejected the extradition.
The Danish authorities challenged the decision in the High Court, which also rejected their plea citing poor prison conditions, including overcrowding, torture and human rights record of India.
The Danish legal authorities then decided not to pursue the matter further and refused to file an appeal in the Supreme Court there against the High Court decision. CBI sources said Indian authorities are not a party to the case and cannot directly intervene.
They said the courts were not considering the merits of the alleged crime but on the prison conditions and human rights issues in India.
CBI had sent one of its senior officers to Copenhagen to present before the Danish legal authorities the gravity of the case but the visit did not yield any positive results.
The case relates to the incident on the night of December 17, 1995, when an AN-26 aircraft dropped arms and ammunition in West Bengal's Purulia district.
The consignment had hundreds of AK-47 rifles, pistols, anti-tank grenades, rocket launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition. The crew consisted of five Latvian citizens and British national Peter Bleach all of whom were arrested.
Davy, a Danish citizen and the prime accused in the case, had escaped. The crew were released from a prison in Kolkata in 2000 after requests from the Russian authorities while Bleach was given a presidential pardon in 2004 following requests by the UK government.
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