London: The UK government confirmed Monday that Sanjeev Chawla, wanted in India to face match-fixing allegations, will be extradited within 28 days as he has exhausted all his rights to appeal in British courts.
Chawla had lost a last-ditch appeal on human rights grounds against former UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s extradition order at a hearing in the Royal Courts of Justice here last Thursday.
The 50-year-old London-based businessman, a key accused in the match-fixing scandal involving former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje in 2000, is expected to be booked on a flight to New Delhi in the next few days once the formal paperwork is completed.
“The Secretary of State signed the order for Sanjeev Chawla’s extradition to India in February 2019. He has now exhausted his rights to appeal,” a UK Home Office spokesperson said.
“Once the final orders from the court have been received, arrangements will be made for his extradition to take place within 28 days,” the spokesperson informed.
This would mark the first high-profile extradition of its kind under the India-UK Extradition Treaty, signed in 1992. The extradition of Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, wanted in connection with the Godhra riots in Gujarat, from the UK to India in October 2016 had been uncontested and therefore did not have to go through various levels of appeals in the UK courts.
Chawla’s case would also mark a turning point on the matter of prison conditions in India, a stumbling block in past extradition cases, with the High Court in England accepting a series of Indian government assurances over the accused’s ‘safety and security’ and complying with international requirements around ‘personal space and hygiene’ while in custody.
India has also offered additional guarantees on medical facilities and protection from intra-prisoner violence in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, where Chawla is to be held pre-trial on being extradited.
According to court documents in the case, Chawla is described as a Delhi-born businessman who moved to the UK on a business visa in 1996, where he has been based while making trips back and forth to India. After his Indian passport was revoked in 2000, he obtained a UK passport in 2005 and became a British citizen.
Chawla is alleged to have played a central role in conspiring with Cronje to fix a South African tour to India in February-March 2000.
PTI
