LONDON/NEW DELHI: In a major win for the government of India, which comes exactly two decades after the infamous Hansie Cronje scandal broke out, Sanjeev Chawla, the PIO accused of helping Cronje fix matches, will finally be extradited to India.
Chawla stands to be extradited from the UK to India any day within the next 28 days after his application for leave to appeal the distric t judges decision was dramatically turned down by two high court judges on Thursday.
Sources told TOI that the Delhi Police team of DCP Ram Gopal Naik and inspector Keshav Mathur has gone to London and is expected to return to India with Sanjeev Chawla on January 20. Mathur was the investigating officer of the match-fixing case.
A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service told TOI after the case: “He has no further options and will be extradited once the court order is served.” Mark Summers QC, representing the government of India in the case, confirmed to TOI: “He cannot go to the Supreme Court as he has not been granted leave to appeal.”
Chawla, who was born in India but has lived in the UK since 1996, will become the second person to be extradited since India and the UK signed an Extradition Treaty in 1992. So far only one successful extradition has taken place from the UK to India under the treaty – that of Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, who was sent back to India in October 2016 in connection with the Gujarat riots of 2002.
Chawlas only option is to get a stay on the extradition proceedings pending conclusion of any European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) hearing. But barristers TOI spoke to said, “His chances of getting it are almost zero.”
In 2018 in the UK, out of 137 requests for a stay of proceedings by the ECHR, only one was granted. Chalwa will most likely be asked to surrender to the police station at Heathrow airport or at his local police station within 28 days. India is likely to send police officers to accompany him to India where he will be housed in Tihar Jail.
Lord Justice Bean and Justice Lewis on Thursday turned down Chawlas request both to appeal the decision by the district judge to extradite him and also refused to re-open the High Court case examining his extradition. “We are quite satisfied that permission for both should be refused. In many extradition cases where it is said prison conditions of the requesting state are unacceptable, the requesting state may say we are giving assurances and the requested person may end up in privileged posRead More – Source
[contf]
[contfnew]
times of india
[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]
