Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked Denmark to extend full support in the extradition of Purulia arms drop case accused Kim Davy, taking into account India’s “sensitivities”.
The matter was raised by Modi during a call by Danish minister of energy, utilities and climate change Lars Christian Lilleholt, who is in Gandhinagar to attend the ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ summit.
The Danish Minister assured that the Denmark Government had been apprised of the matter.
Peter Bleach
Last year in December, India has sent a fresh request to Denmark seeking extradition of the alleged gunrunner, also known as Neils Holck, after a High Court in Denmark turned down the extradition request.
The Denmark government had reportedly accepted India’s request for extraditing Davy, who was but he then challenged the proceedings in a city court in Copenhagen, which rejected the request.
The case pertains to illegal dropping of AK-47 in the nights of 17 December, 1995 from an Antonov AN-26 military aircraft over the district of Purulia in West Bengal.
The shipment had hundreds of AK-47 rifles, pistols, anti-tank grenades, rocket launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
All the crew of the flight consisting five Latvian citizens and one British national were arrested except Kim Davy who escaped.
The five Latvian citizens were released from prison in Kolkata on the request of Russian authorities while British national Peter Bleach received a presidential pardon in 2004 on the request of the government of United Kingdom.
During the meeting, Modi also expressed his gratitude for Denmark’s support to India’s membership of MTCR and NSG.
Denmark government had reportedly accepted India’s request for extraditing Davy, who was but he then challenged the proceedings in a city court in Copenhagen, which rejected the request
The two also discussed bilateral trade cooperation with the Prime Minister asserting that India-Denmark trade of $2.8 billion and Danish investment of $6 billion in India showed the strength of trade and investment ties between the two countries.
On his part, the Danish minister conveyed greetings of the Danish Prime Minister and said that Denmark greatly appreciated Modi’s vision for modernising India.
Denmark was keen to participate in India’s smart city project and was awaiting an early visit by Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu, the visiting minister conveyed and added that Denmark was also keen to cooperate in the area of green energy particularly wind and solar.
Observing that India has set ambitious targets for combating climate change in COP21 with plans to install 175 GW of renewable energy capacity, Modi said Denmark could be a valuable partner in the area.
Emphasising that new innovation was needed in the wind energy sector, the Prime Minister advocated a hybrid model where benefit could be driven from both solar and wind energy through an integrated system.
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