Purulia arms drop case: India sends request to extradite Denmark's Davy

New Delhi: India has made a fresh request to Denmark seeking extradition of Niels Holck aka Kim Davy, an accused in the 21-year-old Purulia arms drop case.

The fresh efforts come after previous attempts to bring him to India for facing prosecution failed as the courts in Denmark rejected the extradition plea.

CBI sources said a fresh request has been sent to Denmark but refused to divulge the new grounds under which it has been sent, citing confidentiality.

Meanwhile, the Danish Justice Minister Soren Paulson was quoted by Copenhagen-based newspaper 'Berlingske' as saying that they have received the request from India.

"Public Prosecutions will now consider the request under the provisions of the Extradition Act," the web site of the daily quoted a press release from the minister's office.

"He stresses that it is important that the matter be treated as soon as possible, and with the thoroughness that such matters require," it said.

The Danish government had accepted India's request for extraditing Davy, who was wanted in the infamous Purulia arms drop case, but he challenged the proceedings in a city court in Copenhagen which rejected the extradition.

The Danish authorities challenged the decision in the High Court which also rejected their plea citing poor prison conditions, including overcrowding, torture and human rights record of India.

The Danish legal authorities then decided not to pursue the matter further and refused to file an appeal in the Supreme Court there against the High Court decision.

CBI sources said Indian authorities were not a party to the case and cannot directly intervene. They said the courts were not considering the merits of the alleged crime but on the prison conditions and human rights issues in India.

The case relates to the incident on the night of December17, 1995, when an AN-26 aircraft dropped arms and ammunition in West Bengal's Purulia district. The consignment had hundreds of AK-47 rifles, pistols, anti-tank grenades, rocket launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

The crew consisted of five Latvian citizens and British national Peter Bleach all of whom were arrested. Davy, a Danish citizen and the prime accused in the case, had escaped.

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