In another embarrassing incident for India’s premier investigating agency CBI, its officers headed off to Copenhagen seeking the extradition of the main accused in the 1995 Purulia arms drop case, Kim Davy, carrying an expired warrant for his arrest. This fact came to light when the defence lawyer found the discrepancy in the government documents.
A two-member CBI team, which reached Copenhagen on May 16, was left red-faced after Davy’s counsel pointed out during the court proceedings there that the arrest warrant issued by a special CBI court in Kolkata against his client had expired in January 2011.
The team which was in Copenhagen to assist local authorities immediately sought a fresh warrant against Davy from the special CBI court in Kolkata on Wednesday. Accepting it as a slip up, a high ranking official of the CBI said, “It was a fault on the part of the CBI officials which had gone to Copenhagen with an expired warrant against Davy.” The warrant was not extended due to an oversight, said the official. However, till later in the evening no responsibility was fixed against the erring officials and no action was taken.
He further said, “The agency will now try to get an open-ended red-corner Notice issued against Davy. There is no time frame if an open-ended arrest warrant is issued against an absconder”. Talking to reporters, CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said, “All documents are in order with the CBI team.”
Downplaying the issue, CBI(DIG) Arun Bothra, who is in Copenhagen told news agencies: “We have come here with an expired warrant or the live warrant is a non-issue. We thought, as an extra precaution, to have the warrant re-validated again.” However, the Danish court, which was expected to pronounce its verdict over the extradition of Davy on Thursday, has reserved it’s order. Reacting to this, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, said, “It’s a big embarrassment and another blunder. The CBI officials reached Copenhagen with an expired warrant for Kim Davy. Big embarrassment for the country. Is anybody accountable in this government?” Echoing similar view, BJP spokesperson Nirmala Seetharaman held the Union home minister P. Chidambaram responsible for the issue.