Madurai (Tamil Nadu) Sep 9 The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the Union government to take custody of convicted antique idol smuggler Subash Chandra Kapoor and proceed in accordance with law for sending him to Germany.
A division bench comprising Justices A D Jagadish Chandira and N Gunasekaran ruled that Kapoor's continued detention is without authority of law.
Kapoor, an American citizen, was extradited from Germany to India in 2012 for a specific idol theft and smuggling case registered by the Udayarpalayam police.
A Kumbakonam judicial magistrate court convicted him in 2022, and he has since completed his 10-year imprisonment sentence for that extradited offense.
The High Court noted that his extradition was strictly governed by the 'Rule of Specialty' under Article 19 of the Extradition Treaty between India and Germany. This international provision mandates that an extradited person cannot be detained, tried, or subjected to any other restriction of personal liberty for offenses committed prior to extradition without the explicit consent of the requested state.
While the Tamil Nadu government sought to prosecute Kapoor in several other pending cases, the German Foreign Office explicitly refused consent for the proposed extension of his prosecution.
Consequently, the High Court ordered the Union authorities to take Kapoor into custody from the Tiruchirappalli Central Prison within two weeks and proceed in accordance with the law to facilitate his return to Germany.
