It is high time to re-examine the extradition treaty between India and the United Kingdom (UK) as many fugitives are using loopholes of the said treaty to avoid deportation to India. In fact, the UK High Court has already observed that the British Government should honour extradition treaty obligations to prevent extraordinary delay in sending back offenders, considering the fact that India is a friendly foreign power. The High Court has also opined against finding faults with the government’s assurances about the security and well-being of persons supposed to face trial in Indian courts. It’s a pity that even after such strong remarks made by the UK High Court, not much effort has been made by either side to initiate the process of plugging the holes. As a result, economic fugitives like liquor baron Vijay Mallya, diamond merchant Nirav Modi and arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, have been eluding Indian law enforcing agencies for years by using loopholes in the treaty. This points towards the need for an urgent revision of the said treaty.
It is not just mere coincidence that most Indian fugitives take shelter in the UK after fleeing from India. They are well versed on UK laws and know well that they can avoid deportation to India by playing the victim card or by raising security issues, as UK practices zero-tolerance policy against any type of human rights violations. Moreover, there are many appellate authorities and getting their nods for extradition is a time-consuming process. So, absconders dodge Indian agencies first by moving from one court to another and secondly by making efforts to get the citizenship of the country, which in turn will completely negate any chance of extradition. From Mallya to Modi, all are using the same ploy to avoid trial in India, even after being accused of looting thousands of crores of tax-payer money.
In such a scenario, it is still premature to hope for early deportation of Nirav Modi, despite the UK High Court denying him the permission to move to UK Supreme Court against extradition to India. The High Court has taken the right step as all concerns expressed by the fugitive diamond merchant such as threat to life or chances of an unfair trial have successfully been addressed by Indian authorities. However, the person charged with fraud and money laundering is still left with another lifeline. Being accused of 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam, Modi has a chance to approach the European Court of Human Rights on the pretext of a possible violation of rights by India. So, India should take the initiative to ink a more stringent extradition treaty with the UK. At the same time, New Delhi should make all efforts to have extradition treaties with other countries too. At present, India has extradition treaties with only 39 countries of the world. The number needs to be increased as fugitives keep on finding new havens to evade punishment by law.