NEW DELHI: With India aggressively pushing to get fugitives like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi extradited, a team from Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the lead prosecution body of that country, is learnt to have visited New Delhi’s Tihar Jail to inspect the facilities, sources said on Saturday.
According to the sources, the visit took place in July and was in direct response to concerns raised by British courts about the conditions of prisons in India.
A five-member team, including representatives from the British High Commission, toured the high-security prison and engaged in direct conversations with inmates to gather a first-hand understanding of the prevailing conditions.
India facilitated the visit with the core objective of providing a concrete assurance to British courts that any individual extradited to the country would be housed in a secure, humane and appropriate environment at Tihar Jail.
This was a necessary step after past extradition requests from India were rejected by UK courts, which expressed serious misgivings about jail conditions.
Allaying these concerns, the Indian authorities have formally guaranteed Britain that no extradited individual will be subjected to physical abuse or illegal interrogation, said sources in the investigative agencies, which are following up on the extraditions.
During the inspection exercise, Indian officials went an extra mile by assuring the British team that a specialised “enclave” or segregated area could be established within the jail premises. Such sections would be created specifically to ensure the safety and security of high-profile accused, meeting international standards, they said.
India is attempting to get 178 fugitives extradited from across the world, with approximately 20 based in the UK.
Apart from Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, the list of fugitives sought from Britain also includes arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and several Khalistani leaders. This collaborative effort marks a key turning point in resolving these long-pending extradition cases.