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HT Exclusive: India withdraws extradition plea for fugitive Ashok Malik
Malik is among 10 Indians whose extradition requests are pending with Britain.
India has withdrawn its extradition request in relation to fugitive Ashok Malik, who has expressed his intention to return to India voluntarily and clear allegations against him there, official sources in London told Hindustan Times.
Malik is among 10 Indians whose extradition requests are pending with Britain, including the high-profile cases of Vijay Mallya and Tiger Hanif.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which acts on behalf of countries requesting extradition, said Malik has now been discharged from the extradition warrant. He is expected to travel to India after securing his passport from the Indian high commission.
A CPS official said: “Malik had indicated that he would like to clear up the allegation and offered to return to India if the extradition request could be withdrawn. That information was passed on to the Indian authorities and the request has now been withdrawn.
“Malik is now making the necessary arrangements with the Indian high commission. He was discharged from the extradition warrant on Friday afternoon in open court.”
Since the extradition request has been withdrawn, Malik’s return to India will not be considered a successful extradition — since 1993, when India and Britain signed a extradition treaty, only Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, who was wanted in a case related to the 2002 Gujarat riots, was successfully extradited.
Besides Malik, there are nine extradition requests pending with Britain: Rajesh Kapoor, Tiger Hanif, Atul Singh, Raj Kumar Patel, Jatinder Kumar Angurala, Asha Rani Angurala, Sanjeev Kumar Chawla, Shaik Sadiq, and Vijay Mallya.
The next hearing in Mallya’s extradition case is scheduled for September 14.
Previous extradition requests for criminal fugitives Raymond Varley, Ravi Shankaran, Velu Boopalan, Ajay Prasad Khaitan, Virendra Kumar Rastogi and Anand Kumar Jain have been rejected by the British government.
