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Danish court turns down plea for Kim Davy’s extradition
Tribune News Service & PTI

New Delhi, June 30
India’s hopes of getting Purulia arms drop case mastermind Kim Davy extradited from Denmark to face trial were dashed today with a high court there refusing to give the green signal to the Danish Government.

The Eastern High Court in Copenhagen dismissed the Danish Government’s plea to allow 49-year-old Davy, who is also known as Niels Holck, to be handed over to the CBI in connection with the 1995 Purulia case on the grounds “of jail conditions and human rights issues” in India.

Shortly after the judgment was pronounced by a five-judge bench, the CBI said it would request the Danish Ministry of Justice through diplomatic channels to appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court of Denmark. Union Home Secretary RK Singh said the verdict would be challenged in the Danish Supreme Court. However, he said it was not a “setback” for India.

The CBI has two week’s to appeal against the verdict as per the Danish legal system. “We are convinced that Kim Davy is the main conspirator and executed the arms drop. We will make all possible efforts to bring him to justice,” said the official, adding that the Danish High Court rejected the extradition plea despite Davy admitting his role in the arms drop before the court and media several times.

Meanwhile, Davy said he was “deeply relieved” over the verdict. At the same time, he said he had asked CBI to bring evidence in Denmark so that the Purulia case proceedings can be held there. “They have refused to do that which is what surprises me,” he said.

Davy, the main accused in the dropping of a cache of arms in Purulia (West Bengal) from an AN-26 aircraft on December 17, 1995, has admitted to his role in the operation before the court and media several times. The consignment had hundreds of AK-47 rifles, pistols, anti-tank grenades, rocket launchers and over 25,000 rounds of ammunition.

“We are yet to get a copy of the judgment, but as per initial reports, the extradition has been denied on grounds of jail conditions and human right issues, which is a subject outside purview of investigating agency,” said a CBI official, adding that once the judgment is received, CBI will request the Danish Ministry of Justice through the Ministry of External Affairs to appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court of Denmark.

The high court upheld the decision of a lower court which had rejected the Danish Government’s move to allow the CBI’s request for extradition of Davy after getting a number of sovereign assurances from India, including that no death penalty would be imposed on him and permission to serve imprisonment, if decided by court, in Denmark prisons. The Danish Government had appealed against the order of the lower court before the high court, which had reserved its decision.

Davy had alleged that the Indian intelligence agency, on the directions of then Prime Minister PV Narsimha Rao, plotted the operation to destabilise the Communist-led West Bengal government by arming locals.