Treaty draft excludes political offenders
Pushing harder for an early extradition treaty with Bangladesh, New Delhi is working overtime to address some of the concerns raised by Dhaka in the last few months on the contentious issue. This is clearly reflected in the classified draft of the proposed extradition treaty shared by Union home secretary R.K. Singh with his Bangladeshi counterpart, Mr Monzur Hossain, during the home secretary-level talks that concluded here Monday.
According to the draft, accessed by this newspaper, the treaty will not be applicable to political offences. However, cases of heinous crime like terrorism, murder including assassination of political personalities, and culpable homicide not amounting to murder will be covered by the treaty.
This list of crimes also include “hostage-taking, hijacking, assault causing bodily harm, kidnapping, offences involving serious damage to property or disruption of public facilities and offences relating to firearms or other weapons or explosives or dangerous substances”. Highly placed home ministry sources said an extradition treaty with Bangladesh will have a severe impact on Northeast militant groups operating out of that country.
Highly-placed home ministry sources said the proposed extradition treaty with Bangladesh will have a severe impact on Northeast militant groups operating out of that country. “We thought the extradition issue would be sorted out during the PM or home minister’s visit. But it got delayed and now we are keen to wrap it up in the next few months for which this draft has been handed over to Ba-ngladesh,” a senior home ministry official said.
The treaty will be applicable to those persons accused of offences punishable under the laws of contracting states with imprisonment for a period of at least one year or more.
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