New Delhi: Ample space and sunlight. No solitary confinement. No overcrowded cells. High-security prisons. And, 24-hour running water.
This is what the Indian government has been promising authorities in the UK and other European countries as it seeks to bring home some of the country’s most wanted economic fugitives: Mehul Choksi, Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Sanjay Bhandari.
Despite the extraordinary assurances, India hasn’t made much headway in the extradition of these high-profile fugitive white-collar criminals who have been trying to dodge Indian agencies and court proceedings for years.
The reason? The state of India’s prisons. Defence lawyers of these economic fugitives have successfully argued in courts in the UK and EU that India’s jails are too overcrowded and violent to guarantee their safety if extradited.
Despite hitting a wall, the government is going to great lengths to bring them home. On Thursday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) sent fresh sovereign assurances to Belgium for the extradition of Choksi, who has been in a Belgian jail since his arrest in April at the request of Indian agencies.
An MHA official said that Choksi would not be held in solitary confinement but lodged in Barrack No.12 of Mumbai’s Arthur Road Prison—a high-security wing for high-profile inmates—with at least one other prisoner facing similar economic offences. Authorities would ensure that they shared a common language.
India assured Belgian officials that Choksi would have a minimum of three square metres of personal space in the cell, which would have a mattress and pillow, with a wooden/metal bed on medical recommendations.
Moreover, the MHA assured Belgian authorities that it would comply with the six parameters under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) that bar torture or degrading treatment. They include individual personal space per inmate, sleeping and sanitation arrangements, water, food, exercise facilities, security and medical treatment facilities.
“Whilst it is often asserted that there is considerable overcrowding in Indian jails, that argument cannot be made in relation to Barrack No. 12, Arthur Road Jail,” reads the MHA letter, a copy of which ThePrint has seen.
The Indian government has offered “sovereign assurances”, promising similar facilities and treatment to all the accused if they are sent back. For Mallya and Modi, the government wrote to British authorities in July 2017 and June 2019, stating they would be lodged in Arthur Road Jail. The government extended the same assurance for London-based arms dealer and businessman Bhandari in September 2022.
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Legal blow
While courts in the UK have cleared the extradition proceedings against Mallya and Modi, the Indian government faced a setback in the proceedings of Bhandari, who was supposed to be lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail.
In its sovereign assurances to UK authorities to secure Bhandari’s extradition, the government wrote three letters starting in September 2022 in which it said that the cell in which Bhandari would be lodged would be “provided with… a wash basin with a constant supply of water”.
But Bhandari’s lawyers argued that the facilities promised to him did not exist in the first place and that India had conceded this fact in an affidavit filed in an unrelated case.
They cited the extradition proceedings of another fugitive Praveen Kumar Arora, saying the Indian government took a completely different stand in the case, saying “no individual wash basins/sinks are provided in any of the cells of Delhi prisons”.
In February, the High Court in the UK accepted Bhandari’s reservations about the state of jails in India and halted his extradition. Bhandari is wanted by Delhi courts in proceedings initiated by the income tax department in connection with tax evasion and money laundering initiated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
“The latter statement is consistent with the video of the cells provided by the respondent during the hearing that we admitted in evidence. It is of vital importance that a sovereign state should ensure any assurances that are given are accurate,” the UK High Court observed in its judgment in February.
It also took into account reports of intergang clashes highlighted by Bhandari through his counsel, especially the murder of a gangster, Sunil Balyan alias ‘Tillu Tajpuriya’, allegedly by members of the rival Gogi gang inside Tihar.
Citing the episodic violence in the jail, the UK High Court had observed that Bhandari would be at risk of extortion, along with actual violence, both from inmates as well as prison officials. He was also seen as a prime target because of the perception that he was a rich man.
Additionally, the court had observed that the risks against Bhandari in Tihar jail in case of his extradition were not eliminated by the Indian government’s assurances and stayed his extradition to India.
“We conclude that in Tihar prison the appellant would be at real risk of extortion, accompanied by threatened or actual violence, from other prisoners and/or prison officials. The nature of the allegations against him, and the publicity in relation to them in India, are such that he would be perceived (at least) to be a very rich man and therefore a prime target for extortion,” the UK High Court had observed.
The court added that given “extreme overcrowding and very significant level of understaffing” in Tihar prison, it would be difficult to protect Bhandari from “extortion and mistreatment at the hands of other prisoners, including gang members”.
“Add to that the compelling evidence that incidents of prison officials, including senior officials, taking bribes, engaging in, and facilitating, extortion, occur all too commonly, it is clear that this appellant would face a real risk of proscribed treatment,” it added.
Mallya, Modi and Bhandari have been declared Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO) by courts designated to adjudicate the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018. The law was introduced following the Rs 12,000 crore banking fraud allegedly committed by Modi and his uncle, Choksi, which is part of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.
Mallya was the first to be declared an FEO in January 2019, as he is wanted by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Modi was declared an FEO in December of the same year. Bhandari was declared an FEO in July this year. Meanwhile, court proceedings against Choksi have been pending before a Mumbai court since 2018.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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