Amarinder Singh on Monday urged the Union government to take up the issue of extradition of 10 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) who have been declared proclaimed offenders (POs) in various drug cases, with the authorities in Canada, where they have taken refuge.

In separate letters to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, the CM has said the extradition process had been pending in these cases for the past three to four years, thus scuttling the state government’s efforts to bring the accused to justice. The CM said, the Congress government in Punjab had already scaled up its efforts for their extradition from Canada, as part of its war on drugs, but was obstructed as these cases were still pending at various levels.

According to an official spokesperson, the government had decided to aggressively pursue the extradition of these suspects as their custodial interrogation was vital to establish the entire chain of the drugs network in Punjab and to expose those allegedly patronising the trade.

Listing out the details of these cases, the CM said Sarabjit Singh Sandhar, a resident of Samrala in Ludhiana, now living in Vancouver in Canada, had been declared a PO on 19 October, 2013. His extradition request had been sent to the Canadian authorities through proper channels and was thereafter prepared afresh as per guidelines shared by them. The revised request has been sent to Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which forwarded the same to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on 20 July, 2017.

Similar is the status of another case, involving Ranjit Singh Aujla, a resident of Muthada Kalan village in Jalandhar, where the extradition request is pending since 25 July, 2017. He was declared PO on 31 August, 2013.

In the case of Nirankar Singh Dhillon, a resident of Apra Mandi village in Jalandhar, who was declared PO on 19 October, 2013 and is currently reported to be living in Lietkencher Circle Brampton, Canada, the extradition request is pending since 19 September, 2017, said the CM, citing police data.

The extradition request for Gursewak Singh Dhillon, a resident of Leela Megh Singh in Jagraon, living in Surrey and declared PO on 1 April, 2014, was sent to MEA by MHA on 20 July, 2017, but there has been no movement since then, said the CM.

Similarly, Jalandhar based Amarjit Singh Kooner, who was declared PO on 31 August, 2013, is living in Vancouver, while Lamer Singh Daleh, also from Jalandhar continues to live in British Columbia, as their extradition pleas continue to hang fire, said the CM. Other similar pending extradition cases relate to Pardeep Singh Dhaliwal of Amritsar and Ranjit Kaur Kahlon of Jalandhar.