New Delhi, Jul 1 (IANS) The Danish High Court in Copenhagen Thursday rejected a plea for the extradition of Niels Holck alias Kim Davy to India in the 1995 Purulia arms drop case, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official said here. India is to approach the Supreme Court of Denmark for his extradition.
New union Home Secretary Raj Kumar Singh, who took charge Thursday, said that India will appeal at the Danish Supreme Court to extradite Davy.
"The court has today (Thursday) rejected on human rights issues the Denmark government's plea for his extradition to India," Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official said here.
The investigative agency said that the five-bench High Court of Denmark upheld the verdict of Nov 1, 2010, of the Hillerød city court and had rejected the appeal for Davy's extradition. "It stated that by extraditing Davy to India there will be risk that he will be subjected to treatment in violation of Article 3 of the European Human Rights Convention that prohibits torture of anyone," said the official.
The court upheld a verdict of the city court holding that the decision of the Ministry of Justice to extradite Davy was not legal.
In support of the extradition, the CBI had referred to an indictment by a Kolkata court of Davy and six others in March 1996 for airdropping in December 1995 a very large quantity of arms in West Bengal and for participation in a criminal conspiracy to incite fear in the Indian government or in a state government by the use of criminal force or the display thereof.
"On CBI's request on April 9, 2010, the Ministry of Justice made the decision that Davy could be extradited on certain specified terms," said the official.
The CBI had assured the Ministry of Justice that Davy would be treated in accordance with the international terms for prosecution in India. The investigative agency also said that any death penalty will not be carried out and that any prison sentence handed down would be served in Denmark.
The city Court in its ruling assessed that a number of conditions in the law to extradite Davy have been fulfilled but that there is a real risk that Davy, if he is extradited to India, will be subjected to torture or any other inhumane treatment and so rejected the plea.
"We are convinced that Kim Davy is the main conspirator and executor of this crime and we will make all possible efforts to bring him to justice," said the CBI official.
The court rejected the plea of the Danish government despite Davy, on several occasions, admitting to his role in the arms drop case in court and before the media, the official said.
The CBI said it will request the Danish government, through the Indian government, to appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court of Denmark.
"Generally, two weeks' time is given for such appeal in the Danish legal system," said the official.
Davy earlier alleged that the Indian intelligence agencies had a role in the arms drop.
He told mediapersons that the then central government led by prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao plotted the operation to destabilise the West Bengal government by arming locals in the Left-ruled state.
He claimed that India's external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) planned the operation with the help of its British counterpart MI-5.
The Indian government had earlier sent a two-member team - a CBI officer and a lawyer - to Denmark seeking the extradition of Davy. He is the main accused in the dropping of a cache of arms in West Bengal's Purulia district from an AN-26 aircraft Dec 17, 1995.
The case was registered by the CBI Dec 28, 1995, and an Interpol notice was issued against Davy in 1996.
Davy, who has been on the run since the incident, was traced to Copenhagen and arrested by the Danish authorities April 9.
If Davy is extradited, he may face trial in a court in Kolkata, the CBI official said.