Big win for India in Nabha jail break case as Hong Kong approves extradition of Romi

After having lost a legal battle in Hong Kong, fugitive Ramanjit Singh alias Romi will be extradited to India, Republic learnt on Tuesday.  Sources told the channel that the Punjab police is awaiting court orders, after which a team will take a flight to bring back Romi from the Chinese-administered region where he escaped to, in 2016. Singh is wanted in two criminal cases dating back to 2016.

A cousin of hardcore criminal Ramanjit alias Rami Mashana, who is convicted in several murder cases, Romi, developed links with many seasoned criminals and terrorists in the maximum-security Nabha jail where he was lodged following his arrest. In the 2016 Nabha jail break incident, sixteen criminals launched an attack on the jail and opened indiscriminate fire and managed to engineer the escape of six inmates. Romi was declared the key conspirator of the incident. 

Big win for India 

Romi, who was arrested in June 2016 in a weapon recovery and fake credit cards case, got bail in August 2016 and then fled to Hong Kong in violation of bail order conditions. The extradition or surrender proceedings against Ramanjit were initiated in 2018 when he was arrested in Hong Kong in a robbery incident. 

A team comprising Assistant Inspector General (Counter Intelligence) Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, Superintendent of Police Harvinder Singh Virk and District Attorney (Prosecution) Sanjeev Gupta had gone to Hong Kong to pursue the case in June 2018 and had secured the provisional arrest of the fugitive in cases registered against him. SP Virk had prepared a surrender case as per the legal requirements of Hong Kong and India, and personally visited the Department of Justice in Hong Kong a number of times in connection with the case. 

In 2019, a Hong Kong court ordered the extradition of Romi. However, thereafter, Romi's counsel filed a second plea challenging a higher court in Hong Kong, challenging the extradition to India after a lower court dismissed his plea challenging his extradition to India on the grounds that he was being targeted for being a pro-Khalistani and claimed that he was "at risk of brutal treatment if returned to the country of his birth". 

However, there was a delay as the Hong Kong government, in view of the coronavirus, asked its population to work from home and suspended work in a number of departments, including that of justice.