Purulia case: CBI team to visit Denmark next week

The government on Saturday decided to send a CBI team to Denmark next week to work on the extradition of Kim Davy, who is allegedly the key conspirator in the Purulia arms drop case.

The government on Saturday decided to send a CBI team to Denmark next week to work on the extradition of Kim Davy, who is allegedly the key conspirator in the Purulia arms drop case.

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The court is hearing an appeal of the Danish government against a lower court verdict that upheld Davy’s contention that he should not be extradited to India for a trail.

“The Danish prosecutors are confident that the high court would give a favourable order,” said Partha Tapaswi, deputy legal adviser of the CBI.

Meanwhile, accusing the previous NDA government of having granted presidential pardon to remit the sentences of Peter Bleach and five Latvians accused in the Purulia arms drop case, the government said pardon had been granted inspite of the objections by the prosecuting agency. Five Latvians were pardoned in July 2000 while Peter Bleach was let-off in March 2004.

The government described the statement of Kim Davy as “mischevious and aimed at misleading the prosecuting agency and the court in Denmark.

But the CBI is hopeful that Davy’s confession to news channel Times Now would help the prosecution convince the court.

Davy as well as co-accused arms dealer Peter Bleach alleged that the operation was planned by the Research and Analysis Wing and the Indian government knew about it.

Bleach told HT in an e-mail, “At the instance of the CBI, the prosecution in Denmark tried to block my summons. But last week, the judges ruled against them saying that the court particularly wished to hear me.”

Rejecting the charge that any official agency had “connived or helped” Purulia arms drop case accused to destabilise the Jyoti Basu government in 1995, the government said "any new fact emerging at any time" would be looked into by CBI.