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Sovereign assurance given in UK extradition case
Two months after a UK trial court refused to extradite two fugitives - Virkaran Awasty and his wife Ritika Awasty -- citing the Sanjay Bhandari case and stating that they could be at risk of torture by investigators , India gave a sovereign guarantee that if extradited, Awastys 'won't be interrogated', highly placed officials familiar with the development said.
The assurance might give some relief to the prosecutors in London in India's appeal in the UK high court against the Awastys' discharge, the second such jolt faced by Indian investigators this year (the first being the Sanjay Bhandari case in February).
The Awastys and their firm Bush Foods are accused of committing a ₹750 crore fraud. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a charge sheet against them in November 2020. The economic offences wings of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police are also investigating them. They were arrested in London in October 2019 after which extradition proceedings were initiated.
On February 28 t, a King's bench division at the UK high court allowed Bhandari's plea against his extradition to India, primarily on the ground that he would be at real risk of extortion, torture or violence in Tihar jail, from other prisoners or prison officials. The high court also refused India permission to go to the Supreme Court against the discharge order, which means that Bhandari is now a free man in the UK.
Weeks later, on April 11, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring at Westminster Magistrate's court discharged the Awastys on unconditional bail. The court referred to the Bhandari ruling in its order stating that 'in the absence of assurances that Awasty won't be held in Tihar, or if he is, that the issues raised in Bhandari will not apply to him, the real risk remains'. Immediately after the judgement, the crown prosecution service (CPS), which is fighting these extradition cases on India's behalf, wrote to officials n Delhi advising them to provide a sovereign guarantee saying the accused will not be tortured or interrogated and that India will comply with article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) prohibiting torture or inhuman treatment of prisoners.
'To persuade the courts in the UK, we have recently given a sovereign assurance that the Awastys won't face post-extradition interrogation (which means they won't be removed from the prison for questioning) or torture, if extradited to India,' said a senior officer, who asked not to be named.
The Sanjay Bhandari judgement has caused significant harm to India's extradition campaign against several high-profile economic offenders with almost all the accused persons located abroad -- including Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, and others -- now citing it to seek relief.
Indian agencies won a small reprieve last month when the UK high court rejected Nirav Modi's plea for bail . In his order in May third week, judge Michael Fordham rejected Modi's plea that cited the Bhandari judgement saying , 'I am not able to place significant weight on this feature' while adding that unlike Modi's plea (for bail), Bhandari's was a case of prospective post-extradition police interrogation'.
Indian agencies recently managed to track fugitive Mehul Choksi in Antwerp and got him arrested in April as part of an extradition request. He has already spent over two months in a prison there and will continue to stay in jail till September 19, the next date of hearing.
HT reached out but did not get a comment from MEA till the time of going to print.
