A Delhi court has recommended the Centre to extradite to the US a fugitive, who is wanted there to stand trial for allegedly conspiring to unlawfully import drugs substance.
"... I hereby recommend to Union of India to extradite the fugitive criminal Syed Khawaja Moin to the requesting state i.E. United States of America," Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ajay Garg said.
The court's order came on an extradition inquiry report on a formal request received by the government of India from the US.
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According to documents received from the US, Moin is wanted to stand trial for allegedly committing offence of conspiracy to import pseudoephedrine and to manufacture methamphetamine for importing the same in violation of the law.
Special public prosecutor N K Matta, appearing for the Centre, told the court that Moin's intentions could be seen from e-mail conversations between him and other conspirators.
Matta said that materials indicated that Moin was working with other co-conspirators with the ulterior motive of illegally importing into the US these substances in contravention of the law in force there.
Moin's counsel opposed the extradition request of the US and claimed that he had lawfully exported the medicines to Mexico and Guatemala from 2007 to 2009 after obtaining a prior no objection from government of India and the final destination of all these consignments was either Mexico or Guatemala.
The lawyer argued that these consignments were seized by the drugs enforcement administration from Florida at Miami but it was not meant for export in the US. He also said there was no evidence to show that Moin had ever exported any drug to the US.
The court, after going all the materials placed before it, observed that offences alleged against Moin were extraditable and the documents furnished prima facie makes out a case for extraditing him to the US.
"After considering the entire facts, circumstances and material in support of extradition request, I am of the view that the prescribed procedure has been followed in as much as the extradition request has been submitted through diplomatic channel along with documents and required information as per Article 9 of the Indo-US Extradition Treaty," the judge said.
