The New Indian Express ·
Idol smuggling: Madurai Bench of the Madras HC permits Kapoor to fly back to Germany
MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court permitted a septuagenarian American antique dealer and smuggler, Subash Chandra Kapoor, to return to Germany nearly 14 years after his extradition from the country over an idol theft case registered by Udayarpalayam police of Ariyalur for the theft of 19 idols worth Rs 94 crore in 2008.
A bench of justices AD Jagadish Chandira and N Gunasekaran passed the order on Tuesday on a Habeas Corpus Petition (HCP) filed by him alleging that he has been illegally detained in Tiruchy Central prison since 2023, even though he completed serving the sentence imposed on him in the above case.
Kapoor was arrested by the German government based on a Red Corner notice issued against him in 2011. He was later extradited to India for the above case on July 13, 2012 and has been in judicial custody since then.
The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of Kumbakonam had convicted and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment on November 1, 2022. Having been granted a set off for the period of detention already undergone by him from the date of his arrest in Germany, he was due to be released in February 2023. However, he continues to be detained in connection with other similar cases pending against him in TN. Claiming that this violates the Extradition Act, 1962, he moved the above petition.
The judges noted that as per Article 19 of the Extradition Treaty between the two countries, the extradited person should not be detained or tried for pre-extradition offences or offences other than the one in which consent for extradition had been granted.
Though the TN government had sought German government's consent to extend his extradition in view of 10 other cases, the latter denied consent in four cases and the rest were pending consideration, the judges observed and held that pendency of request for consent cannot be equated with consent. While the allegations against the petitioner may be serious and heinous, the same cannot dispense with the requirements of the Extradition Act and Treaty, they opined and directed the prison authorities to take steps to return Kapoor to Germany.
