The External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has once again become a savior. This time, due to her intervention, Ministry of External Affairs canceled the illegal extradition of a French woman to Chile. The story of 57-year-old Marie Emmanuelle Verhoeven, a French lady who landed in India on a valid visa is a spine chilling one.
How can India send a French citizen on a valid visa to hand over to Chile?
During her Indian visit, all of a sudden she was arrested and put in Tihar Prison for nearly two years on an extradition request from Chile. According to Chile, two decades ago she was involved in a controversial political assassination of a leader from Chile. The murder happened in 1991 when Marie was working in Chile at the UN Mission. In 2014, Indian Express reported in detail about this curious case where the Indian Government got involved.
From 2010, the current Chile Government was tracking her and tried to catch when she was in Germany also. But Germany rejected Chile’s request and asked them to deal with France, of which she is the citizen. Meanwhile, Marie was attracted to Buddhist ideology and became a frequent visitor to India. Here comes her bad fate. Somehow due to the pressure of Chilean authorities, some pliable people in India ordered her arrest and extradition to Chile. This is totally illegal and atrocious. How can India send a French citizen on a valid visa to hand over to Chile? Can any Indian leader on a visit to Dubai be extradited to Pakistan by the Dubai Government?
The sad thing was that she was put in Prison and her mental and physical health deteriorated. Most of the media houses did not point out the illegality of the actions of External Affairs Ministry, while her extradition case was going on at Delhi’s Patiala House Court. Could it have been due to the Chilean influence on the Liberal journalists of Delhi? Marie’s mobile phones were snatched from the Court, two times! She alleged that this was done by Intelligence agencies or spy agents of Chile to know her call details. Mysteriously no media covered this. Most of them might have been enjoying the hospitality of the Chilean Embassy in India. Interestingly, the French Embassy intervened in the case rather late.
On July 26, on Sushma’s strong intervention, External Affairs Ministry officials withdrew the extradition petition.
Senior Advocate Ramni Taneja took up her case and argued against External Affairs Ministry’s extradition move to Chile. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy came to her rescue and alerted PMO and Sushma Swaraj about the gross illegality of handing over a French citizen to Chile. Swamy’s legal associates Tarun Goomber and Dilip Kumar also provided legal support to the hapless French woman.
On July 26, on Sushma’s strong intervention, External Affairs Ministry officials withdrew the extradition petition. And on the same day, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Jyoti Kler ordered to release the passport and other documents to Marie Emmanuelle Verhoeven. She is expected to return to France soon.
But the question is that is on everyone’s lips is who from the Indian Government meted out this gross injustice to the French woman? Is there a cabal of crooks working in India for extradition related cases?
Thanking Sushma Swaraj, Subramanian Swamy tweeted:
The MEA Order and the Court Order dated July 26 is published below:
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Why not a CBI enquity?….how 2 years in prision will be compensated?
Its Dr. Swamy who made this happen or else She would have extradited to Chille…