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Mahesh

19/08/24 11:00 AM IST

India- bangladesh Extradition treaty

In News
  • India and Bangladesh have an extradition treaty, under whose provisions Bangladesh may seek the extradition of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Extradition treaty
  • India and Bangladesh signed an extradition treaty in 2013, which was then amended in 2016 to ease and hasten the exchange of fugitives between the two countries.
  • The treaty came into being in the context of several Indian fugitives, particularly those belonging to insurgent groups in the North East, hiding in and operating out of Bangladesh.
  • At the same time, Bangladesh had been facing trouble from outfits such as Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), whose operatives were found to be hiding in states like West Bengal and Assam in India.
  • The treaty allowed India to successfully extradite Anup Chetia, a top United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) leader, from Bangladesh to India in 2015.
  • Since then, one more fugitive has been handed over to India by Bangladesh through the extradition route.
  • According to sources, India too has handed over a couple of Bangladesh fugitives to its neighbour through this treaty.
Treaty rules
  • According to the treaty, India and Bangladesh are supposed to extradite individuals “who have been proceeded against… or have been charged with or have been found guilty of, or are wanted for… committing an extraditable offence” by a court of the requesting country.
  • An extraditable offence, the treaty says, is one which carries a minimum punishment of one year imprisonment. This includes financial offences.
  • Crucially, for an offence to be extraditable, the principle of dual criminality must apply, meaning that the offence must be punishable in both countries.
  • The treaty says that extradition shall also be granted if there is an “attempt to commit or aiding, abetting, inciting or participating as an accomplice in the commission of an extraditable offence”.
Exception in treaty
  • The treaty says that extradition may be refused if the offence is of “political nature”.
  • But this is limited by the nature of offence. And the list of offences which cannot be deemed as “political” is rather long.
  • These include murder; manslaughter or culpable homicide; assault; causing of an explosion; the making or possession of an explosive substance or weapons by a person intending to endanger life; the use of a firearm with intent to resist or prevent arrest; damaging property with intent to endanger life; kidnapping or taking of a hostage; incitement to murder; and any other offence related to terrorism.
  • Hasina is a political player, and she can claim to seek political asylum in India.
  • However, some of the offences for which she has been booked are excluded from the definition of political crimes in the treaty. This includes cases of murder, enforced disappearance, and torture.
  • There are grounds spelt out for refusal of extradition requests in the treaty.
  • Article 7 of the treaty says that “the request for extradition may be refused by the Requested State if the person whose extradition is sought may be tried for the extradition offence in the courts of that State.” This is not applicable in Hasina’s case.
  • Article 8 lists out multiple grounds for refusal including cases in which an accusation has not been “made in good faith in the interests of justice” or in case of military offences which are not “an offence under the general criminal law”.
  • India has the option of refusing Hasina’s extradition on the ground that the accusations made against her are not “in good faith in the interests of justice”. But this has the potential to adversely impact New Delhi’s relations with Dhaka’s new ruling dispensation.
Source- Indian Express

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