Par panel bats for quick extradition process

A parliamentary panel has recommended that the extradition process should be simplified and made quicker, as it rapped the ministries of Home and External Affairs over the delay in extraditing an NRI man accused of cruelty to his Indian wife.

The Lok Sabha's Committee on Petitions tabled its report today on the representation received from the father of the woman over the inordinate delay in extraditing her husband from Australia for subjecting her to "cruelty" and "criminal breach of trust".

T K Kaul, father of Parul Kaul, had made a representation to the panel over the inordinate delay in the extradition of his son-in-law Rajnesh Kaul, who lives in Australia.

The panel, headed by Bhagat Singh Koshyari, said in its report that keeping in view the mental and physical state of distressed women, who marry NRI spouses, it is of the opinion that the process of submitting and forwarding extradition request be simplified which will not only save time but help the the distressed women to get justice in time.

"In the instant case, both the ministries of External Affairs and Home Affairs are not able to take any concrete steps with respect to initiation of extradition proceedings against Rajnesh Kaul.

"The Committee, therefore, urge the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs to evolve a short, simple and quick way of preparation, easy submitting and quick forwarding of extradition request to the country concerned for its consideration," the report said.

The panel noted from the submissions of the Home Ministry that the delay in making extradition requests to the External Affairs Ministry might allow the fugitive to find an escape to avoid getting extradited or to delay the process of extradition.

"Once the fugitive is traced, his whereabouts are known, immediately the Law Enforcement Agency is requested to send a 'Provisional Arrest Request' and the same is transmitted to the country concerned through the Ministry of External Affairs. Thereafter the extradition request is sent to the country with a provision prescribed in the treaty," the panel said.

The panel also recommended that the Ministry of Home Affairs, in consultation with the agencies concerned, prepare a strategy to deal with special cases of distressed women wherein the charge sheet be filed in the appropriate court in a time-bound manner.

The panel strongly recommended the creation of an "error free" and a "speedy network" to not only save the time involved in making an extradition request, but also not to give an opportunity to the offender to take measures to avoid getting extradited or to delay the process of extradition.