India has agreed to allow the visit of a British human rights expert to Gujarat to examine conditions at a prison where Indian fugitive Mohammad Hanif Umerji Patel alias Tiger Hanif, alleged mastermind of the 1993 Surat bomb blast, will be kept after being extradited.
The Gujarat government has conveyed its consent to the Union home ministry, and this has been conveyed by the Indian government’s lawyers to the British court which is hearing India’s application for Hanif’s extradition. The expert in question will simply visit one jail and will not be permitted to record the statements of prison officials.
The home ministry had recently said that while it would allow this visit, it would adopt a “reciprocal” approach when the question of extraditing any British fugitives cropped up. It had also sought the Gujarat government’s response. “The human rights expert is an Indian doctor who will be deputed to visit only that jail where Hanif would be lodged after extradition,” a home ministry official said.
The MHA hopes its tough new stand will send across the message that such conditions set by foreign governments or foreign courts will not be taken lying down by India. “Fugitives hiding in other countries and trying to take shelter in their laws is totally unjustified,” an official said. Hanif cited India’s poor human rights record and his fear of torture in India while opposing the extradition plea in a British court. MHA officials said, meanwhile, that the “reciprocity” in approach in handling UK extradition requests was not linked to any particular case.