In a setback for India, the Danish Court has rejected India’s plea to extradite main accused Niels Holck who is also known as Kim Peter Davy who was allegedly involved in the Purulia Arms deal case dated back to August 1995.
A Possible Risk of Violations:
The Danish Court who refused India’s extradition plea said that there’s a possibility that he would be subjected to mistreatment on the part of authorities which would be a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, if he was extradited to India. This was despite the reassurances which were given by India that the main accused would be placed in a special detention center when the criminal proceedings would be taking place and which would be also led by the observers from the Danish Police force.
Anders Rechendorff who is the Public Prosecutor said that it’s not confirmed whether the decision will be challenged or not. However, the lawyers of Davy countered the guarantees given by India and they termed it as inadequate. Jonas said that it has been 6 years where the negotiation is taking place for the conditions between India and the Public Prosecutor. He also said that now the court is saying that his safety and security can’t be guaranteed.
However, he had admitted much before in a Danish Court that he was the part of a plane which had dropped weapons to a village in West Bengal and also confessed that it was meant for Ananda Marga, a rebel group.
The Purulia Arms Drop Case:
The Purulia Arms Drop case was one of the gravest cases which not only posed threat to India’s national security but also surprised the villagers in the dawn of 18th December 1995. The illegal arms drop happened in Purulia which is a village in the city of West Bengal.
This included the massive weapon haul of 100 AK 47 rifle, there were anti-tank grenades, rocket launchers and also 25,000 rounds of ammunition. The locals of the places like Jhalda, Khatanga, Belamu, Maramu of Purulia village saw how weapons were spread all-over the fields that morning. The previous night, the arms were dropped by a plane which had left Karachi and its destination was Bangladesh. The plane halted in Varanasi for refueling and diverted from Gaya to Purulia.
The plane which had dropped the weapons had 8 people on-board which included the main accused Kim Davy from Denmark, Peter Bleach who was the British arms dealer, Deepak Manikan who was a Singaporean with Indian Descent and other 5 Russian crew who spoke Latvian.
The plane was detected by the Indian Air force. However, others apart from Kim Davy and Manikan somehow evaded the crackdown. The rest were arrested and were given life sentence imprisonment . The Central Bureau of Investigation in its dossier said that Deepak had brought the parachutes from South Africa which used to drop the ammunition. However, the Latvian Crew was released on the request of Russia in 2000 and Bleach was released by the NDA Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Years after the incident, Davy who had written a book and also featured in a documentary who had comfortably settled in Denmark said that he had procured weapons for the safety of the Ananda Marga group which was facing threats from the then West Bengal Government which was led by Jyoti Basu.
The Extradition Case:
In 2007, he was tracked by authorities of Denmark. Ever since then, the successive governments of India have been pursuing his Extradition. The Denmark government had earlier agreed but it was challenged by him who had cited the extradition law. Since then, his extradition has been the center of discussion in every high profile visit.
