India to sign five new extradition treaties

After signing extradition treaties with Saudi Arabia and South Korea, India has finalised draft agreements with five more nations — Iran, Sri Lanka, Brazil, France and Israel. The government is now working out the dates on which the treaties can formally be signed.

After signing extradition treaties with Saudi Arabia and South Korea, India has finalised draft agreements with five more nations — Iran, Sri Lanka, Brazil, France and Israel. The government is now working out the dates on which the treaties can formally be signed.

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“We’ve finalised the drafts and are expecting to ink them in the next couple of months,” said a Home Ministry official.

The treaty with Saudi Arabia was signed in February, during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Riyadh. Another such treaty was signed with South Korea when its president, Lee Myung-Bak, visited New Delhi in January.

With bilateral cooperation in security and counter-terrorism measures assuming significance, India has stepped up efforts to formalise agreements with other nations so suspects can be brought back to the country to be tried under Indian laws.

The Centre is giving extradition treaties the utmost importance as intelligence inputs suggest that some nations could be used as safe heavens by terrorists and the underworld.

India has extradition treaties with several other countries, including Nepal, Belgium, Netherlands, Canada, UK, Switzerland, Bhutan, USA, UAE and the Russian Federation.