CBI seeks Davy extradition, with expired warrant

A CBI team landed in Copenhagen to extradite Kim Davy, prime accused in independent India's most intriguing conspiracy, the Purulia arms drop case - with an expired warrant. HT reports. Arms drop case and the man

A CBI team landed in Copenhagen to extradite Kim Davy, prime accused in independent India's most intriguing conspiracy, the Purulia arms drop case - with an expired warrant.

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The team of star investigators was blissfully unaware of the situation till Davy's counsel pointed out that the warrant the Davy file contained had been issued by a Kolkata court on October 11, 2010 and expired on January 3.

Asked why the CBI team went to Denmark with an invalid warrant, agency spokesperson Dharini Mishra said, "It was an oversight."

This comes two days after the embarrassment over sending a faulty list of most wanted fugitives to Pakistan.

A scramble began soon after to extend the validity of the warrant. A desperate CBI superintendent, special crime branch, NM Singh, petitioned the court to get the warrant's validity extended till August 20, 2011.

Mishra said, "We are sending our team the original arrest warrant apart from a scanned copy. So, there will be no problem on Thursday when the hearing will occur."

The CBI team, comprising deputy inspector general Arun Bothra and prosecutor Izaz Khan, reached Copenhagen on May 16 to attend the hearing of Davy's extradition in the Denmark high court.

Last October, a lower court rejected the government's order to extradite Davy to India. The Danish government challenged the lower court's order in the high court. The hearing of the appeal was fixed on May 17, 18 and 19.

Since India does not have an extradition treaty with Denmark, it requires the sanction of a Danish court to approve the country's decision to extradite any Danish national.

The CBI bungling has added to the buzz that India might not be too keen on extraditing Davy.

This line of speculation began after Davy's claims in April this year that the then central government and a security agency were aware of and helped in the plan to drop weapons in Purulia district of West Bengal.

Inputs from Abhishek Sharan, New Delhi