New Delhi, Mar 7 (PTI) A court here has observed that a US fugitive citizen wanted in Indonesia for allegedly causing death of a person due to medical negligence in 2017 cannot be extradited to Indonesia as there was no “prima facie” case against him.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Pranav Joshi was hearing the proceedings against Randall John Cafferty for whom the Centre had received an extradition request from the Indonesian government in October 2017.
Cafferty was arrested from Bengaluru Airport on September 29, 2017 following a Red Corner Notice and lodged in Tihar prison.
The Delhi High Court granted him bail in March 2018, subject to the condition that he could not leave Delhi and had to appear before the trial court here for extradition proceedings.
In an order dated March 6, the court said it had considered the facts and circumstances of the case, documents received in support of the extradition request and provisions of the extradition treaty between India and Indonesia.
“Prima facie case against Fugitive Criminal (FC) Randall John Cafferty is not made out in respect of the offence under Article 359 of the Indonesian Penal Code (punishment for causing death by negligence) under Section 7(3) of the Extradition Act, 1962 and FC stands discharged.” According to the 1962 Act’s provision, if the magistrate is of opinion that a prima facie case is not made out in support of the requisition of the foreign state, the fugitive criminal has to be discharged.
The court said that the offence alleged against the FC did not come within the purview of “extraditable offence” according to the provisions of the extradition treaty executed between the two countries.
In its 36-page order, the court noted the submissions of Cafferty’s advocate Ajay Verma that death had occurred because of certain medications given by a hospital in Jakarta and not because of his negligence as a chiropractor.
Verma also said the post-mortem of the deceased was not conducted for around six months and that according to the forensic reports, death was not caused by chiropractic treatment, the court noted.
“It is quite interesting to further note that despite the fact that the victim died while being treated in the hospital in Jakarta, the requesting state did not bother to investigate the probable negligence on the part of the hospital,” the court said. PTI MNR KSS KSS
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