After over 14 years, the Purulia armsdrop case may have got its biggest breakthrough. The alleged mastermind, Danish citizen Kim Peter Davy alias Niels Christian Nielsen, was arrested at his home in Copenhagen on Friday and is expected to be extradited to India to face trial, reports Times Of India.
Interpol had issued a red-corner notice against Davy after the mysterious airdropping of a veritable arsenal of hi-tech weapons — including AK-47s, rocket launchers and anti-tank rockets — in the Jhalda police station area in Purulia on December 17, 1995. Davy lived quietly in his hometown in Denmark all this while as the other accused faced trial and some were sent to prison.
In 2004, India sent an extradition request to Denmark. Four years later, on October 8, 2008, it was said that the extradition was close to being finalized, with India agreeing to give an assurance to the Danish authorities on their conditions and bring about some changes in the existing extradition law. One of the conditions Denmark sought was the waiver of the death penalty if Davy were convicted. It is a mystery why it took one-and-a-half years more to bring Davy to book.
The fact that CBI knew where he was but took no action has led to a belief that the agency did not want Davy to be put on trial because his revelations might be too uncomfortable for some people.
The true motive of the operation still remains shrouded in mystery, but it has been said in the chargesheet that the weapons were intended for the “socio-spiritual movement of an Ananda Marga sect for a new social order”. Davy was known as Acharya Dada Nirvananda Avadhut in Ananda Marga's Prout Universal group. In 2004, his mentor, Shri Lal Chand Parihar alias Acharya Tatbhanananda Avadhut, was arrested as an alleged co-conspirator.
