Denmark today assured India that it would undertake further techno-legal examination of its request for the extradition of Danish national Kim Davy, the main accused in the 1995 Purulia arms drop case, and initiate discussions on that basis.
This was conveyed by Denmark Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who met External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on the margins of the ASEM Summit here.
"During the meeting, Denmark Prime Minister recognised that the developments regarding extradition of Kim Davy to India required to be addressed.
"External Affairs Minister stressed on the need to move forward on this issue. Denmark Prime Minister assured that the Danish side would undertake further techno-legal examination of the issue and initiate discussions on that basis," government sources said.
Davy's extradition is warranted in the 1995 Purulia arms drop case involving an AN-26 aircraft which dropped sophisticated arms - including AK-47 assault rifles -- and ammunition in West Bengal's Purulia district.
The crew of the aircraft consisted of five Latvian citizens and a British national Peter Bleach, who were all arrested. Davy, the prime accused in the case, however, managed to escape.
The crew members were released from prison in 2000 after a request from Russian authorities, while Bleach was given presidential pardon in 2004 following a request by the UK government.
Though the Danish government had in April 2010 agreed to extradite Davy, he appealed against the decision in the city court which ruled against the extradition in November, 2010.
The Danish government subsequently appealed against the city court's decision in the higher court, which upheld the order against extradition.
India has asked Denmark to appeal it in its Supreme Court but Danish authorities refused to do so. They reportedly conveyed to India that the prosecutor was not under the control of the Danish government, resulting in New Delhi scaling down diplomatic ties with that country.
