Danish court says ‘no’ to Kim Davy's extradition

CBI to request Danish Ministry to move Supreme Court

The Central Bureau of Investigation has suffered a setback in its efforts to get Kim Davy — a Danish citizen and prime accused in the Purulia arms drop case of 1995 — extradited from Denmark with a court there rejecting a plea of the Danish government.

The plea to allow extradition of the 49-year-old Davy, also known as Niels Holck, was dismissed by the Danish High Court on the ground that he would risk “torture or other inhuman treatment” in India.

Quoting initial reports from Denmark, CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said on Thursday that the “plea has been denied on the grounds of jail conditions and human rights issues, which is a subject outside the purview of the investigating agency.”

A copy of the judgment was awaited for the CBI's perusal. There was no adverse comment on the CBI probe, the spokesperson said.

“Once the judgment [copy] is received, the CBI will request the Ministry of Justice, Denmark, through our External Affairs Ministry, to appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court of Denmark. We are convinced that Davy is the main conspirator and executor of this crime and we will make all possible efforts to bring him to justice,” she said.

The Danish High Court upheld the lower court decision that rejected the government's move to allow the CBI's request for Davy's extradition after getting a number of sovereign assurances from India, including that no death penalty would be imposed on him and permission to serve imprisonment, if any, in Denmark prisons.

In December 1995, an AN-26 aircraft dropped arms and ammunition in Purulia district of West Bengal. The consignment had hundreds of AK-47 rifles, pistols, anti-tank grenades, rocket launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

The crew of the aircraft consisted of five Latvian citizens and British citizen Peter Bleach, who were all arrested. Davy managed to escape from Mumbai.

The crew were released from prison in Kolkata in 2000 after requests from the Russian authorities, while Peter Bleach was given a presidential pardon in 2004 following requests by the U.K. government.