Will the Minister of EXTERNAL AFFAIRS be pleased to state:
(a) the efforts made to sign extradition treaty with the countries which have not entered into this treaty so far;
(b) the names of the countries with which India does not have an operative extradition treaty; and
(c) the names of the countries in which request for extradition of fugitives including the names of fugitives from India have been pending?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
[GEN. (DR) V. K. SINGH (RETD)]
(a) & (b) Till date, India has signed Extradition Treaties with 42 countries. India also has Extradition Arrangements with 9 more countries. A list of these countries is attached at Annexure-A. It is the policy of the Government of India to conclude Extradition treaties with as many countries as possible so as to ensure that fugitive criminals do not escape justice. Accordingly, India is in the process of negotiating extradition treaties with many more countries.
In addition, India is a party to various multilateral conventions such as United Nations Convention against Corruption, United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism, which can serve as a legal framework to bring back fugitive criminals from the countries who are also the parties to these conventions.
(c) A request for extradition can be initiated against a fugitive criminal who is formally accused of, charged with or convicted of an extradition offence. Such requests are handled with utmost care so as not to allow the fugitive an opportunity to take measures to avoid getting extradited. The Ministry of External Affairs takes up extradition requests with the concerned foreign countries when a request for extradition is received from the relevant law enforcement agencies in India. A list of all successful extraditions from foreign countries to India, indicating both the countries concerned and the fugitives, is enclosed at Annexure-B.