Purulia case: India downgrades ties with Denmark for Kim Davy rebuff

NEW DELHI: Stepping up its protest against Denmark for its refusal to extradite Purulia arms drop accused Kim Davy, India has decided to further scale down bilateral ties.
The government has instructed its ministries and departments not to entertain Danish diplomats. Sections in the government see the Danish “cussedness” over Davy’s extradition as an expression of racism.“All arguments including those forwarded by Danish legal firms have failed to convince Denmark. It is against all civilized norms… It’s like giving protection to a terrorist… It smacks of racism,” a top government official said.
Davy is wanted in India for the air-dropping of sophisticated arms – including AK-47 assault rifles — and ammunition in West Bengal’s Purulia district on December 17, 1995. The huge cache of arms has been held responsible for the proliferation of illegal, sophisticated firearms in Bihar and eastern UP leading to bloody gang wars.
India’s decision to downgrade diplomatic ties came after Copenhagen’s refusal to appeal its high court’s verdict rejecting Davy’s extradition in the Supreme Court. The move came after New Delhi’s repeated attempts to convince Denmark about contesting the lower court’s verdict failed.
Government sources said New Delhi not only shared with Copenhagen the opinion of three top Danish law firms that found enough ground for appeal but also offered to put Davy in a ‘special jail’ keeping concerns of courts of that country in mind if the accused is extradited to India.
They said the Danish courts were not considering the merits of the alleged crime but were laying emphasis on India’s prison conditions and human rights issues.
Sources said that a fresh circular had been issued directing senior officials not to meet or entertain any Danish diplomat posted in India. “We’ll see what more can be done to further scale down diplomatic ties with Denmark,” said as senior official.
The circular was issued around 11 months after the external affairs ministry’s advisory, which had emphasized that India must reciprocate Denmark’s non-cooperation in refusing to contest its lower court’s verdict in Davy’s extradition case. The finance ministry had, subsequently, issued a communiqué that all agreements and projects with Denmark be finalized only after consultation with the external affairs ministry.
The case against Davy relates to an incident on December 17, 1995, when an AN-26 aircraft dropped sophisticated arms – including AK-47 assault rifles — and ammunition in Purulia district at the dead of night. The crew of the aircraft consisted of five Latvian citizens and a British national Peter Bleach, who were all arrested.
Davy, however, managed to escape. The Latvians 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, the accused appealed against the decision in the city court which ruled against the extradition in November 2010. The Danish government appealed against the city court’s decision in the high court.
The high court in June last year upheld the city court order against Davy’s extradition. Later, India asked Denmark to appeal it further in its Supreme Court.
But the Danish authorities refused to do so. They reportedly conveyed to India that the prosecutor was not under the control of the Danish government.