- Title: Indian court defers decision on extradition of man wanted in Australia
- Date: 11th January 2016
- Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (JANUARY 11, 2016) (REUTERS) POLICE PERSONNEL STANDING OUTSIDE COURT COMPLEX PEOPLE ENTERING THE COURT COMPLEX SIGN BOARD READING 'NEW DELHI DISTRICTS PATIALA HOUSE COURTS' A LAWYER COMING OUT OF THE COURT VARIOUS OF POLICE PERSONNEL STANDING ON GUARD IN A BALCONY WOMEN POLICE PERSONNEL STANDING
- Embargoed: 25th January 2016 12:05
- Keywords: court hit-and-run case Puneet Puneet India Australian fugitive
- Location: NEW DELHI, PATIALA, PUNJABI, INDIA
- City: NEW DELHI, PATIALA, PUNJABI, INDIA
- Country: India
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Judicial Process/Court Cases/Court Decisions
- Reuters ID: LVA0013ZLX3D3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
CORRECTION: EDITORS PLEASE CORRECTING THE INTRO WHICH SAID PUNEET KUMAR WAS A FUGITIVE. HE WAS IN FACT RE-ARRESTED IS THEN RELEASED ON BAIL.
Australia will have to wait until March 10 to find out if India will extradite a man wanted in a hit-and-run case in Australia after an Indian court deferred the decision on Monday (January 11).
Puneet Kumar, who had gone to Australia to study hospitality, is accused of mowing down a student and injuring another in 2008.
Kumar had pleaded guilty to charges of culpable driving and negligently causing serious injury but fled to India while he was out on bail in 2009 awaiting sentencing. He used a friend's passport to flee Australia.
Australia's ABC news reported last June that Kumar was allegedly drunk and driving at 148 kilometres per hour when he hit and killed 19-year-old Queensland student Dean Hofstee in 2008. Another man, 20-year-old Clancy Coker, was seriously injured.
Kumar pleaded guilty to culpable driving and negligently causing serious injury. He fled Australia in 2009, while on bail awaiting sentencing. He used his friend's passport to leave the country.
He was on the run for four years. Authorities arrested him in 2013 in the city of Patiala, north of the Indian capital.
He was imprisoned awaiting extradition but was released on bail in May 2015 after doctors reported he was suffering from the potentially life-threatening kidney condition glomerulonephritis.
The global police body Interpol has said it plans to push for his extradition to Australia. However, Kumar and his legal team have opposed this, saying they want the trial in India due to concerns over a threat to his life in Australia. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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