Far greater cooperation between India, UK on issue of fugitives: Indian envoy

India's outgoing high commissioner to the UK, YK Sinha, believes he is concluding his tenure at a time when there is far greater cooperation between both governments on contentious issues such as fugitives from the Indian justice system finding refuge in Britain.

As the senior diplomat retires from the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) this month after 37 years, he said it was one of the areas that had registered marked improvement to ensure that people do not misuse the freedoms offered in the UK to escape justice in India.

"On issues such as fugitives from justice, I think there is greater appreciation of our position on this and certainly there is much greater cooperation between our agencies and governments in trying to ensure that people don't misuse the freedom and legal systems to escape justice back home," he said in an interview.

Some of the high-profile cases of fugitives from justice coincided with his 23-month posting at the Indian High Commission in London, including the extradition trial of liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya who is wanted in India on fraud and money laundering charges amounting to nearly Rs 9,000 crore.

"We can judge the level of cooperation based on what the outcome is. But the kind of cooperation we have now, perhaps didn't exist earlier or was much less," Sinha said.

He also highlighted terrorism as a significant area of closer engagement and a realisation in Britain of the dangers posed by India's immediate neighbourhood of Pakistan.

He said, "In our neighbourhood, there is considerable instability. There is extremism, there is terrorism and that affects not just India but the entire world."
"After all, the UK has suffered last year from terrorist attacks, some of the provenance of which may be from our neighbourhood. So, it is important that we cooperate, and the good thing is that we are already doing so, having realised the importance of jointly combatting this menace."
The IFS officer said, "Indian student numbers have dropped drastically from five-six years ago, almost 50 per cent. Now, encouragingly, the numbers are going up, but they are still far short of earlier, with the UK losing out to other destinations."