Shankaran loses extradition plea,CBI wont oppose bail

During the hearing before the UK court,the CBI submitted that it will not oppose Shankarans bail plea in India.

In a major success for the CBI in the seven-year-old Navy war-room leak case,a British court Wednesday rejected an appeal filed by key accused Ravi Shankaran against his extradition to India. Shankaran is a relative of former Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash.

During the hearing before the UK court,the CBI submitted that it will not oppose Shankarans bail plea in India. As all other accused in the case are already out on bail,therefore,in order to ensure the possibility of Shankarans availability for trial,CBI gave an undertaking that it will not oppose his bail plea,subject to conditions, said a CBI official.

Shankaran,a former Naval officer,is a key accused in the case of leaking classified information from the war-room to arms dealers. He has been absconding since the case was registered by the CBI in March 2006.

The CBI revoked Shankarans passport in May 2006 and secured a red corner notice against him after filing a chargesheet in July 2006.

An extradition request was sent to Britain in 2007 following reports that he was in the country and he was arrested by British authorities in April 2010 on the basis of the non-bailable arrest warrants issued by a Delhi court.

Shankarans defence team had claimed at the last hearing on February 8 that some of the evidence should be ruled inadmissible and also that their clients human rights were at a real risk of being impinged due to the endemic delays in the Indian judicial system. The British court also dismissed Shankarans claims that the CBI had gone out of its way to cover up false and fabricated evidence as having no merit whatsoever.

The counsel for Shankaran claimed that eight classified attachments which were sent using Shankarans e-mail account could not have been sent in such a short span of time.

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However,CBI demonstrated before the court that files containing the classified information could be sent within five minutes, said a CBI official.

The CBI said district judge Nicholas Evans at the Westminster Magistrates Court rejected Shankarans petition and said a case to answer has been made out against the accused and the verdict can be sent to British Home Secretary Theresa May for a final decision on issuing an extradition order.

According to the CBI,the judge said that extradition hearings are bound by good faith between sovereign states and that he is confident that if the prosecution in India no longer felt there was credible and admissible evidence against the accused,then it was their duty to end the proceedings and withdraw the extradition request.

The CBI had named six people,including Shankaran and arms dealer Abhishek Verma,for allegedly leaking classified information to defence dealers. All the accused,including Verma,were later granted bail as the CBI failed to get Shankaran. Verma and his wife were arrested last year in a separate case and are presently in jail.