Thaindian News

New Delhi, Apr 30(ANI): The Central government had taken the 1995 incident of arms dropping at West Bengal’s Purulia district very seriously from the very beginning, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said on Saturday.

“Immediately after the air drop the Govt. of India had set up an inter-ministerial group to co-ordinate effort. As a result, the aircraft involved could be quickly identified and was later forced to land at Mumbai international airport. Various intelligence and security agencies of the Govt. of India have provided all out support to the CBI in its investigation in and outside the country,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

“Letters Rogatory were also sent to several countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Singapore, UK, Bulgaria, Latvia, and Denmark. Investigations were also conducted through mutual legal assistance arrangements in the USA, South Africa, Netherlands, Ecuador, Brazil, and Sweden,” it added.

The PMO further said that the recent allegations by Kim Davy, who master minded the arms drop, are mischievous and aimed at misleading the prosecuting agency and the court in Denmark which are seized with the matter of his extradition to India to face trial.

“Earlier also he has admitted his role in this crime not only in front of the print and visual media including BBC and in a book written by him, but also in front of Danish court at Hillerod in Copenhagen. His self serving allegations and attempt to give a political colour to his crime and thus deflect the judicial process of his extradition is not substantiated by the evidence and facts,” the statement said.

As for the allegations by Peter Bleach, he was convicted and sentenced to life by an Indian court of law on the basis of evidence collected by the CBI, the PMO said.

“This conviction was never set aside by any superior court in India. The allegations and contentions of Bleach as voiced by him now could have been raised during his free and fair trail in an open court of law. He was given every opportunity to prove his alleged innocence whereas the trial court found him one of the main conspirators and convicted him for life,” the statement said.

The PMO also said that from the very beginning the Central government and CBI have shown all seriousness in locating and extraditing Davy.

“Since he was traced in Denmark in the year 2001, efforts continued to extradite him to India, in spite of the fact that there is no extradition treaty between Denmark and India. The matter has repeatedly been taken up at the highest levels resulting in the initiation of extradition proceedings against Kim Davy. During the recent visit of the Danish Deputy Prime Minister this matter was again taken up by the External Affairs Minister,” the statement said.

“The case remains under investigation. Any new facts emerging at any time will be looked into by the CBI in a professional manner. Moreover once Kim Davy is extradited and put to trial in an Indian court of law he will get ample opportunity to explain his contentions and his defense to the court which will decide on his culpability as per the evidence and the law,” it added.

It further said that notwithstanding what Davy and Bleach have said in a section of the media, the fact remains that no government agency connived or helped them in their heinous act.

“The Govt. of India has facilitated the free, impartial and professional investigation of the case at every stage. The Govt. of India is committed to unravel the truth and the entire conspiracy behind the crime and to bring all the guilty to justice,” the statement said.

“Documents pertaining to the case against Peter Bleach and the Latvians are already in the public domain. When Kim Davy is extradited to India and put on trial the documents pertaining to his role will also be put in the public domain,” it added. (ANI)