Signing of Nepal-India Extradition Treaty deferred

The signing of the Extradition Treaty and Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance between Nepal and India is deferred for the time being.

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has ‘agreed’ to a request from Maoist chairman Prachanda to defer the signing of the treaty for some time, according to government sources. The Maoist chairman is learnt to have asked Koirala to put on hold the signing of the treaty until the summit talks slated for October 08.

Home Minister KP Situala was scheduled to leave for India Wednesday (Oct 4) to sign the Extradition Treaty and Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance, which will replace the extradition treaty signed in 1953. The Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance will facilitate the implementation of the extradition treaty.

The Nepal government is yet to say anything officially about the deferment of signing of the treaty.

Meanwhile, talking to BBC Nepali Service Tuesday, former home secretary Chandi Prasad Shrestha, who signed the initial draft of the treaty from as the Nepal government's representative, said the new treaty does not allow - as feared by many in Nepal - Indian security officials to come into Nepal and apprehend anybody wanted by them.

“As per the provisions of the new treaty, if somebody from third country commits crimes in either country and sneaks into the other s/he will be subjected to extradition [to the concerned country],” he said.

The home secretaries of Nepal and India had initiated the treaty in January 2005.