UK court rules no ‘real risk’ in Tihar Jail to extradition of alleged bookie Chawla

Sanjeev Kumar Chawla is a key accused in the cricket match-fixing scandal involving former South African captain Hansie Cronje in 2000.

The UK High Court on Friday quashed a lower court’s order against extraditing alleged bookie Sanjeev Kumar Chawla to India and directed the District Judge to re-start extradition proceedings against him.

Chawla, a key accused in the cricket match-fixing scandal involving former South African captain Hansie Cronje in 2000, had won his case against extradition to India last year after the Westminster Magistrates’ Court here concluded there was a prima facie case to answer but his human rights could not be guaranteed in Tihar jail, where he was to be held.

The High Court ruled that it is convinced with the assurances provided by the Indian government regarding the safety of prison conditions in New Delhi’s Tihar jail as it quashed the lower court’s order against extraditing the 50-year-old.

In a judgment handed down in the Royal Courts of Justice here, Lord Justice Leggatt and Justice Dingemans upheld the Indian government’s appeal against that order and directed the District Judge to re-start extradition proceedings against Chawla.