European Court of Human Rights rejects Sanjeev Chawla plea to block his extradition to India

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday rejected alleged bookie Sanjeev Chawla's application for an interim measure on human rights grounds to block his extradition from the UK to face match-fixing charges in India.

The legal paperwork process for his extradition will now go ahead through the UK Central Authority, for Scotland Yard officers to hand Chawla over to their counterparts from Delhi Police to be flown back to Indian within days.

"We can now confirm that the Court has rejected Mr Sanjeev Chawla's request for an interim measure," a spokesperson for the ECHR said on Thursday.

Chawla had lost a last-ditch High Court appeal on human rights grounds against former UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid's extradition order at a hearing in the Royal Courts of Justice in London last month, with a court order dated January 23 setting a 28-day deadline for him to be extradited to India.

The 50-year-old British national, a key accused in the match-fixing scandal involving former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje in 2000, must therefore be extradited from the UK by February 19.

He had approached the Strasbourg, France, based ECHR on the basis of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the UK is a signatory and relied on Article 3, relating to prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment, of convention in his plea.

The ECHR had sought additional assurances from the British High Commission in New Delhi that Chawla's rights as a British citizen would be upheld, including regular consular access.

Chawla is alleged to have played a central role in conspiring with Hansie Cronje, the late South African cricket team captain, to fix a South African tour to India in February-March 2000.