A Denmark court on Thursday rejected India's request to extradite the Danish national wanted over the 1995 Purulia weapons smuggling case. India has for years sought to have Niels Holck, also known as Kim Peter Davy, extradited to stand trial on suspicion of supplying a West Bengal rebel group with around four tons of weapons.
A Latvian Antonov An-26 aircraft flew over Indian airspace in December 1995, dropping weapons over the village of Joupur in West Bengal’s Purulia district.
Citing violation of the extradition act, Denmark rejected India’s request. The court ruled that sending Holck to India would violate the country’s extradition act due to a risk that he would be subjected to treatment in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Also read
India is yet to take a decision on going for an appeal on the court’s ruling.
Meanwhile, Davy's lawyer Jonas Christoffersen told Reuters, "It's been six years of negotiating the conditions between the public prosecutor and India. Now the court says that his safety can't be guaranteed."
Holck had admitted in the court that he was onboard a Russian cargo plane with six others, smuggling weapons into West Bengal in 1995.
Kim Davy was allegedly the mastermind behind the operation.
According to Holck, the arms were supplied for people associated with Ananda Marga, a rebel movement that needed weapons to defend against soldiers of the communist party in power in West Bengal at the time.
However, the weapons landed elsewhere than planned and were discovered by the Indian authorities. The whole crew in India was prosecuted and imprisoned, except for Holck—who escaped to Nepal and returned to Denmark in 1996.
The trial in Denmark did not rule on whether Holck was innocent or not so far.