India is set to extradite Bangladeshi national Mohammad Abdul Shakur to the UK, where he is accused of murdering his wife and children 10 years ago. The development is seen as another signal of increasing cooperation between the two nations on sensitive, and potentially thorny issues, in the home affairs arena.

Shakur’s extradition was recommended by a New Delhi court in 2013, but a case against him filed in India meant that he remained in the country. However, India has now agreed to drop the case against him, and return him to Britain — something that could happen even within the next week or 10 days.

“We are willing to extend our cooperation even as they extend theirs,” said a senior source of the increased cooperation between the two countries on extradition related issues.

Mallya’s arrest

The development comes as India’s attempt to extradite liquor baron Vijay Mallya has progressed swiftly, from the formal request made by India in February this year, quickly followed up by Mallya’s arrest in April, and commencement of court proceedings in June (only delayed by the general election in Britain).

The main hearing is set to take place in the first week of December, despite some attempts by Mallya’s defence to push it into next year. The Crown Prosecution Service, which is in charge of making the case on behalf of the Indian government, has emphasised its strong working relationship with Indian authorities, who have provided them with over 2,000 pages of evidence against Mallya over the course of the past few months.

While the extradition of Shakur wont impact the process for Mallya, which is now exclusively in the hands of the courts, the movement on these two cases is a sign that the India-UK Extradition Treaty, which has been in place since 1992, is sufficient to deliver the kind of cooperation the two nations have sought, particularly with political backing.

Last year, in what was considered a significant step forward, Britain extradited Samirbhai Vinubhai Patel, wanted in connection with the Gujarat pogrom, to India last year, the first extradition to take place to India since the signing of the treaty. Others wanted by India include “Tiger Hanif (Mohammed Hanif Umerji Patel), who is sought for his role in terror attacks in Gujarat, and whose return was ordered by a British court in 2012.

The development comes at the end of a week-long visit by Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi to Britain to take part in the India-UK Home Affairs Dialogue, chaired by the British Home Office’s Permanent Secretary Philip Rutnam. The first dialogue took place in May, after being proposed during Prime Minister Theresa May’s visit to India last year. It is hoped that the regular conversations can help the two nations iron out difficulties, including in the detail and processes surrounding some of the most controversial issues in bilateral relations.

Following the press conference, Mehrishi signalled that progress had been made on a number of issues relating to visas, Britain’s concerns about Indian nationals who overstay their visas in Britain, and extradition processes, flagging that an unnamed person was set to be extradited from India in the next couple of weeks. The extradition treaty between the two nations was working “just fine,” he said at the time.

A spokesperson for the UK Home Office declined to comment on the development, saying that extradition to the UK was a matter for the requested state.

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