February 7, 2025
NEW DELHI – India today said it has not conveyed any response to Bangladesh on the latter’s request for extradition of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina for her alleged crimes committed before she fled to India last year.
“The Government of Bangladesh has sought the extradition of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for offences allegedly committed before she came to India on 5th August 2024. No response has been conveyed to the Government of Bangladesh,” Minister Of State of External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh said while replying to a question posed by CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala John Brittas.
Bangladesh has sued Hasina and her kin in court, accusing them of graft, mass murder and also demanded her extradition while accusing her of inciting unrest through her statements from New Delhi. The Prof Yunus-led government has also accused her of enforced disappearances.
Referring to the demolition of Dhanmandi-32 residence of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Congress Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor told ANI, “It is tragic that these things are happening. Obviously Bangladesh can … say these are our internal affairs and that it’s none of your business and I accept that.
“But having said that, it’s also true there are some decencies we would like to see in our neighbours. And this was a gentleman (Bangabandhu) with an enormous contribution to Bangladeshi history, which cannot be washed away whether you disagree with him or his party or his daughter politically. It is truly, I think, shameful that such a thing has happened,” Tharoor said.
He also said “India as a foreign country can only express its own regret that it has happened. But it has no business to complain to Bangladesh because it is genuinely not our business.”