How Could You? Hall of Shame-UK-Gopal Sejani case-Child Death UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From London, UK,”Indian authorities have decided to appeal against a UK lower court’s order of denying extradition of British citizen Aarti Dhar and her husband Kanwaljitsinh Raizada to face trial in India for the murder of their 11-year-old adopted son and his brother-in-law on human rights grounds.
Gujarat’s Junagadh Police Superintendent Saurab Singh told IANS on Saturday: “The appeal to extradite the couple accused (Aarti Dhar and her husband Kanwaljitsinh Raizada) has been turned down by a UK lower court. We will appeal in the higher court looking into all the concerns, including human rights violation, raised by the lower court.”
Singh stressed that all the issues raised by the lower court will be duly addressed.
The appeal for extradition request of the couple to face charges of murder will be now heard at the Royal Courts of Justice on January 28 next year.
India had made an extradition request for the couple, which had been turned down by Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London. Now, Indian authorities have got permission from the UK High Court to appeal for the extradition of the couple to face charges of murder.
The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which represents the Indian authority in court extradition proceedings, said earlier this week said that that permission to appeal had been granted against a Westminster Magistrates’ Court’s order to extradite the Indian-origin British couple.
The case pertains to Dhar, 55, a Heathrow Airport worker born in Kenya whose native place is Gurdaspur, in Punjab, and Kanwaljit Raizada, 30, from Keshod in Junagadh in Gujarat, being accused of adopting Gopal Sejani in India, taking out life cover for him, then paying Rs 5 lakh to hitmen to murder him in Gujarat on February 8, 2017 with the intention of splitting the insurance payout.
It is alleged that the husband and wife, from Hanwell in west London, had travelled to Gujarat, to adopt an orphan in 2015. They had placed an advertisement in local newspapers, promising they would take an adopted child to live in London. They decided to adopt Gopal, who was living with his older sister and her husband, Harsukh Kardani, and doing menial work. Gopal’s father had died a few years ago and his mother later remarried. He was left abandoned.
Kardani, who was his guardian, agreed to the adoption. The London couple began preparing adoption papers. However, Dhar and Raizada had other plans. Dhar took out an insurance policy in Gopal’s name. Their plan, police said, was to eliminate Gopal in one year so that they could claim the insurance.
The couple returned home to London but Gopal never made it to the UK. The boy’s passport could not be made since the adoption procedures were not followed. The couple later had to pay the second premium of Rs 13 lakh.
On February 8, 2017, Gopal and his guardian Kardani were attacked and killed. Two bike-borne masked men stabbed Gopal and Kardani near Keshod on the national highway. Both died of their injuries in hospital. While Gopal succumbed to his stab wounds on February 11, Kardani died on February 17. Police said there were two previous attempts against Gopal’s life, but both had failed.
Police cracked the murder case in late February 2017 with the arrest of the two killers. The investigators said the boy was adopted and subsequently murdered as part of a conspiracy to claim an insurance amount of Rs 1.3 crore.
On February 19, 2017, police had arrested Rajpari Goswami (24) and Lakhan Ghadhvi (21), both residents of Rajkot, who revealed that the London-based couple had plotted the murder of the boy, Gopal, along with Nitish Punjabi, who was the tenant of the couple when he lived in the UK.
The couple had Nitish eliminate the boy. The arrested accused were hired by Nitish to kill Gopal. Goswami and Ghadhvi accepted the contract killing of the boy for Rs 5 lakh and Rs 25,000 was paid in advance.
Police thereafter initiated the process to extradite the couple, who later denied organising the killing of Gopal.”
India to appeal against UK move on couple’s extradition
[The Weekend Leader 10/19/19 by SUMIT KUMAR SINGH]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update:“A BRITISH couple accused of plotting the murder of their adopted son to grab a £150,000 insurance payout will not be extradited.
Airport worker Arti Dhir, 55, and Kaval Raijada, 30, deny planning the abduction and fatal stabbing of tragic orphan Gopal Sejani in 2017.
But UK judges have now ruled they cannot be sent back to Britain because it would breach their human rights.
Britain’s chief magistrate ruled there is strong evidence to convict Dhir and Raijada thanks to a confession from one of the hitmen and payments made to him.
However, they avoided extradition following a High Court hearing yesterday and are free to walk the streets of Britain.
Lord Justice Dingemans upheld a refusal to extradite the couple on the basis they face the prospect of a sentence of life without parole if convicted of double murder in India.
Britain previously rejected requests to extradite the couple to face trial in India but the Indian government was granted leave to appeal which was again refused.
The husband and wife, from Hanwell, West London, adopted 11-year-old Gopal as their son after travelling to Keshod in Gujarat in 2015.
Indian authorities say they placed an advert in a local newspaper, promising they would take a child to live a better life in London if their application was successful.
The couple then met poverty-stricken farm boy Gopal who was living with his older sister and her husband, Harsukh Kardani.
The pair – who were his legal guardians – agreed to the adoption and began preparing adoption papers.
But Indian police claim Dhir and Raijada – who had no children of their own – took in the youngster after hatching an evil plan.
Cops say Dhir took out a £150,000 insurance policy in Gopal’s which would would pay out after 10 years – or in the event of his death.
Dhir was alleged to have paid two premiums of £15,000 soon after the adoption, according to legal documents.
If the couple were to be returned to India it would breach Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and amount to “inhuman and degrading treatment”, the court ruled.
Conservative MP Tim Loughton, who sits on the Commons home affairs select committee, told The Mail: “Do we really want suspected child killers roaming the streets of London?
“This is an absolutely heinous crime and I think many people would agree there needs to be the harshest of sentences if they are found guilty.
“It is up to the Indian legal system to decide on the appropriate penalty and we should not be standing in the way of justice being served for the victims.”
David Green, of the Civitas democracy think-tank, added: “If this crime had been committed in this country, a whole life sentence may have been a sentencing option so it seems extraordinary and unjust to not assist a friendly, Commonwealth country in securing justice in a case like this”
The couple returned home to London without Gopal – who never set foot in the UK and stayed in Gujarat while visa papers were arranged for him.
Then on February 8, 2017 the lad was abducted by two men on motorbikes, stabbed and left at the roadside.
His brother-in-law, Mr Kardani was also attacked as he tried to defend the boy and both died from their wounds in hospital later that month.
Indian authorities say two previous attempts had been made against the boy’s life, but both failed.
The insurance policy never paid out and police in India later arrested a suspect said to be a friend of the couple who spent time with them as a student in London.
Three more men allegedly connected with the double murder have also been arrested in India and inquiries are continuing.”
[The Sun 2/7/2020 by Matt Coyle]
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