UK refuses Dawood Ibrahim aide Tiger's extradition

LONDON: Britain has reportedly refused India's request to extradite Tiger Hanif, a close aide of India's most-wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, accused in two cases of bomb blasts in Gujarat. Top sources in the Home Office revealed that Tiger's extradition was refused by then Home Secretary Sajid Javid, a British politician of Pakistan origin.

Even as Tiger gets relief, Dawood's another close lieutenant Jabir Motiwala, accused of drug financing, is still lodged in British jail and continues to face extradition charges.

While India might request British authorities to find a way to reassess Tiger Hanif's extradition, the refusal by Sajid Javid ostensibly helped the defence lawyers to get Tiger's case discharged by the court.

Tiger Hanif, known as Hanif Mohammed Umerji Patel, was arrested in the UK by the Metropolitan police in February 2010, on a tip-off from Indian agencies.

Also linked with Iqbal Mirchi, Tiger was accused in two cases of terror attacks in Gujarat in 1993. Tiger had conspired to launch a grenade attack in a crowded Surat market in which an eight-year-old girl was killed and several people injured.

In another attack, in a bid to avenge the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992, Tiger Hanif was accused of hatching a conspiracy to execute a bomb explosion at the Surat Railway station, injuring over a dozen persons.

The 59-year-old Hanif was traced to a grocery store in Bolton, Greater Manchester, and arrested by the Scotland Yard on an extradition warrant from Indian authorities in 2010.

Tiger lost his appeal in the UK High Court in April 2013, following which the case was handed over to the UK Home Secretary. However, after years of pondering over the files, the UK Home Secretary in 2018-19, Sajiv Javid, reportedly refused extradition of Tiger Hanif. (IANS¬¬) 

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