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Bleach case referred to Law Department: Advani

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI June 22. Reports that the Government was readying to release Peter Bleach, the Englishman convicted in the Purulia arms drop case, may not have been entirely accurate. The Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, responding to questions from the media about an assurance to the British Government that Bleach would be released, said the matter had been referred to the Law Department.

He added that the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, had written to his British counterpart, Tony Blair, in response to two letters on the subject, telling him that ``there is a difficulty''.

The `difficulty', in part, is that the main accused in the case, the Dutch national, Niels Nielson, alias Kim Davey, has evaded arrest. Davy `escaped' from Mumbai airport after the plane was forced to land there, following completion of its mission in December 1995.

He remains free, according to Indian investigators, primarily because the Danish law is protective of its nationals and until quite recently had laws which did not allow their extradition to another country.

The Prime Minister has told Mr. Blair that legal opinion given to the Government suggests that if Bleach is freed the case against Kim Davy, which they still hope will lead to his extradition, will fail.

Mr. Advani said the concern that ``the whole case will disintegrate'' remained. This is something that the Indian Government, and Mr. Advani personally, have communicated to the Tony Blair's Government from time to time.

But, some say that there is a shift from this hard position. And softening may be reflected in Mr. Advani's admission that Bleach, who is serving a life sentence, had spent considerable time in jail. He told journalists that Bleach had ``already spent seven or eight years in prison''.

He also showed an understanding of the pressures on the British Government, which has made repeated requests for Bleach's release. The Blair Government, he said, had ``constituency trouble'' on this issue.

Mr. Advani was also asked if there was any progress in India's request to Britain to extradite Ayub Thukar, an alleged financier of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, and two others, wanted on terror-related charges. He said that in the case of Thukar, the primary hurdle was the fact that Hizb-ul-Mujahideen was not a banned organisation in Britain.

He said he had raised the issue of banning Hizb-ul-Mujahideen with both the U.S. (there also it is not on the list of banned organisations) and the U.K. governments. Both countries, he said, ``promised to take the necessary steps.'' Asked if they had said that they would ban this organisation, he said, ``Britain said we will examine the matter''.

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