Fatal hit-run driver Puneet Puneet tells Indian court Australia extradition would be illegal
A FATAL hit-run driver who fled the country after admitting to killing a man in a Melbourne car crash, has told an Indian court it would be illegal to extradite him to Australia.
Law & Order
Don't miss out on the headlines from Law & Order. Followed categories will be added to My News.
FATAL hit-run driver Puneet Puneet, who fled Australia after admitting to killing a man in a car crash at Southbank, has told an Indian court it would be illegal to extradite him back to Melbourne where he faces a jail term.
Puneet’s lawyer, Kanhaiya Kumar Singal, told the court in New Delhi yesterday that as the 2008 crash happened before an extradition treaty was activated between India and Australia, the procedure against his client was illegal.
“Extradition arrangements between two countries were signed in 2011,” he said.
Puneet was at the wheel of a car that hit and killed a 19-year-old Queensland nursing student, Dean Hofstee, at Southbank in October 2008. Fellow student Clancy Coker, 20, was injured in the crash.
In February 2009, Puneet, who had recorded a blood-alcohol reading of 0.165 and was estimated to have been travelling at 150kmh, pleaded guilty to charges of culpable driving causing death and negligently causing serious injury.
But in June that year, facing a maximum jail term of over 20 years, he fled back to India using a friend’s passport.
Puneet was present in court to challenge his extradition procedure, which has been initiated by Australian Federal Police.
The lawyer representing Australia on behalf of the Indian Government, Wali Bhaskar, described Puneet’s argument as “frivolous”.
“This court has the judication to prove whether Puneet’s crime is extraditable or not,” Mr Bhaskar told the Herald Sun.
The farce of the Puneet affair is shown by the fact that today marks 3016 days since he slammed into Mr Hofstee and killed him at Southbank.
Experienced police believe he could, by now, have twice over served the kind of jail term he could have expected if he had not fled.
Three years have passed since he was arrested in India following a top-secret, painstaking operation which consumed hundreds of police hours.
There is mounting concern Puneet may use illness to avoid extradition.
The next hearing is scheduled before Magistrate Jyoti Kyler on January 23.