MUMBAI: Red corner notices have been issued through Interpol for the Swiss couple, Wilhelm and Loetscher Marti, who fled the country in November 2004, after they were convicted by a Mumbai sessions court in 2003 for paedophilia.

No one knows how or when exactly the Martis left India, especially since their passports had been deposited with the trial court. The sessions court convicted them for sexually abusing children after they were caught red-handed by the Mumbai police and social activists in a hotelnear Mumbai in December 2000.

According to Sanjay Apranti, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Enforcement), Mumbai, the notices were issued at the end of December 2005. Now it was up to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to ensure that the couple was extradited and brought back to India. The process is under way, he said, and that in itself was a major achievement. However, he could not specify when the couple would be extradited.

India has an extradition treaty with Switzerland.

Even the Mumbai police were not aware that the Martis had left the country. The Social Security Branch of the police, which had filed the case against the Martis, realised that they were no longer in the country only when the couple applied to the Swiss Embassy for travel documents to visit a third country in December 2004.

Warrants issued

A special leave petition was filed by the State of Maharashtra in July 2005, after reports on the missing Martis appeared in the press. On August 16, the Supreme Court issued non-bailable warrants against the Martis. The apex court also cancelled their bail and ordered the State of Maharashtra to seek the help of the Union of India for their extradition from Switzerland where they are reported to be staying.

The Martis, both in their early sixties, were sentenced by a sessions court in 2003 to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years and asked to pay a total fine of Rs. 9,000 each, and compensation of Rs. 5,000 to each of their victims. The couple, however, appealed to the Bombay High Court which, in its final hearing on March 15, 2004, set aside the sentence and directed the payment of Rs. 6 lakh as compensation to the young girls who were their victims.

The High Court order was challenged by the State of Maharashtra in the Supreme Court. The apex court, while staying the High Court order, granted interim bail to the Martis, pending the final order. The Martis assured the Court that they would not leave the country and their passports would be deposited with the trial court. On May 26, 2004, the Martis were released on bail and the Supreme Court ordered that their passports should remain with the trial court and that they should not leave the country.

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