India requests UK to act upon 131 pending extradition requests

By PTI

Updated: Tuesday, February 16, 2016, 0:49 [IST]

New Delhi, Feb 15: India today requested Britain to swiftly act on its 131 pending pleas for extradition of wanted criminals. The issue was raised by Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju before visiting Minister of State for Immigration of the United Kingdom, James Brokenshire.

Rijiju raised the issue of as many as 131 pending requests from New Delhi under the Extradition Treaty, a Home Ministry spokesperson said. The UK Minister on his part said these matters are handled by British courts.

Brokenshire said the provision of death penalty in India and the European Commission's provisions on human rights were posing hurdles in acceding to the requests. He, however, assured Rijiju of cooperation and said a team of experts will examine the pleas on a case-to-case basis.

The Union Minister said New Delhi will explore the scope for the signing of an agreement with London on exchanging information about criminals. India will positively consider the draft and advance signing of the MoU on Information Exchange on Criminality and Criminals with the UK, Rijiju added.

The British Minister voiced concern on migrants overstaying their visas in the UK and said Indians constitute the largest such group. Rijiju said India will cooperate but needs to verify the Indian citizens amongst such illegal immigrants. The Union minister also flagged India's concerns over the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) set up by the UK that might be a hurdle before Indians travelling to that country for travel and work.

Brokenshire said his government has not reached a conclusion yet on the recommendations of the panel and added the UK, in fact, encourages Indian students to visit that country for higher education. Also, 20,000 jobs are being offered to foreign students and this will largely benefit Indian students, he said.

The visiting British delegation referred to limitations in making online payments for Indian e-Tourist Visa following which Rijiju assured the payment gateway was being upgraded.

PTI