Terrorist challenges trial in non-extradition cases

New Delhi, Aug 13: A top Punjab terrorist, Daya Singh Lahoria, charged with attempting to kill the then Youth Congress president Maninder ...

New Delhi, Aug 13: A top Punjab terrorist, Daya Singh Lahoria, charged with attempting to kill the then Youth Congress president Maninder Singh Bitta in 1993, has moved the Supreme Court challenging his prosecution in many cases which did not form part of his extradition proceedings in the USA.

A division bench comprising Justice G B Pattanaik and Justice U C Banerjee after hearing the petition issued notice to the Ministry of External Affairs and state governments of Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana.

Lahoria and his wife Kanwaljeet Kaur were arrested in the US on May 3, 1995 and the Indian Government requested extradition of the duo on the ground that Lahoria was wanted in a bomb blast case which killed nine persons and nearly claimed the life of Bitta. The Government said both were wanted in India in connection with a case of kidnapping for ransom.

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The CBI was handed over the accused by the New York police on January 16, 1997 and the couple was produced before a designated court in Ajmer which remanded them to police custody. While Lahoria is at present lodged in Tihar Jail, Delhi, his wife is being kept in Ajmer Central Jail.

Counsel Nafis A Siddiqui submitted before the Court that Lahoria and his wife could not be prosecuted on various cases which were not mentioned in the final judgement of the Extradition Court in the US and wanted to know whether they could be detained on the ground of pendency of these cases.

The counsel said that in addition to the extraditions, four more cases have been added against the name of Lahoria and two more against his wife.

Siddiqui said this was in violation of Section 21 of the Extradition Act which provided that an accused extradited to India from a foreign state would not face trial in offences other than those for which he was extradited.

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The provision also said that if he was to be tried for other offences the leave of the extraditing court in the foreign country has to be taken where the accused would be heard, the counsel said.

The petitioners said that other prosecution initiated against them in cases other than the car bomb blast and kidnapping cases were liable to be quashed as it were done in violation of Section 21 of the Extradition Act.

Siddiqui said the trial court has held that TADA did not apply on Lahoria in the blast case but due to application of TADA in the FIRs in other cases registered in the other states, Lahoria and his wife were not being able to get bail on merit resulting in their "illegal" detention.

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