UK court clears bookie Chawla’s extradition

LONDON: The Westminster magistrates court on Monday recommended to the home secretary that no bars exist to cricket bookie Sanjeev Chawla’s extradition to India following the November 2018 judgement of the high court, revising its October 2017 ruling that blocked his extradition.

It was the second legal victory for India in British courts within a month. On December 10, the same magistrates court had ordered that controversial businessman Vijay Mallya be extradited to India to face charges of alleged financial offences running into thousands of crores.

In Chawla’s case, the high court had ruled on November 16 that conditions in the Tihar Jail in Delhi did not pose any “real risk” to Chawla's human rights, which was the only ground on which Judge Rebecca Crane had blocked his extradition in October 2017.

Crane said on Monday: “There is nothing for me to decide. The case can now be sent to the home secretary.” She told Chawla that he will continue to remain on bail, and if he breached bail conditions, he would be arrested and brought to court. Home secretary Sajid Javid has two months to take final decision on Chawla’s extradition. Chawla will have the opportunity to apply for leave to appeal in the high court within 14 days of Javid’s decision.

By ruling that Chawla faced “no real risk” in the Tihar Jail, the HC had removed the only bar to his extradition to face charges of match-fixing during South Africa’s tour of India in 2000.

In her October 2017 judgement, Crane said she was otherwise satisfied that there is a prima facie case for him to answer on the basis of evidence gathered by the Delhi police. She had dismissed his objections to extradition on the ground of ‘passage of time’ (over 15 years elapsed since the alleged crime in India) and ‘right to family life’ (he has been living in the UK with his family since 1996 with wife and two sons).