CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND BUSINESS ETHICS

PURULIA ARMS DROP CASE, 1995

SUBMITTED BY, SUBMITTED TO,

NAME- PRAKASH SRIVASTAVA MR. GAGAN GULATI

CLASS- BBA LLB (HONS) ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

I.D. – 17FLICDDNO1082 ICFAI LAW SCHOOL

YEAR- 3rd DEHRADUN

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 Purulia Arms drop case, 1995

The Purulia arms drop case refers to an incident that occured on 17 December 1995 in which
unauthorised arms were dropped from an Antonov An-26 aircraft in Purulia district in West
Bengal. The arms dropped included a very large consignment of AK47 rifles and around a
million round of ammunition scattered over four villages in the district. It is considered to be
one of the biggest security breaches in Indian History.

The aircraft reappeared in the Indian airspace within days, it was forced to land and its crew
comprising five Latvian citizens and a British mercenary, Peter Bleach, was arrested and
sentenced to life imprisonment. But the chief accused, a danish citizen named Niels Hock aka
Kim Davy escaped arrest and was able to ship himself out of India. The investigation into the
incident conducted by BBC pointed the finger towards 'Anand Marga' a spiritual organisation
operating in India since 1955, as the intended target of the weapons. This claim was validated
later by the court, citing the Pilot's testimony and photos of Anand Marga headquarters found
in the aircraft as credible evidences. Ananda Marga, was since the 1980s, in a continuous
confrontation with the ruling CPI(M) and its cadres in West Bengal. The organisation had
also been facing staunch opposition from the natives and were labelled as 'child kidnappers'
with numerous instances of violent confrontation between the two groups. The investigation
reports claimed that the arms were dropped so that the the organisation can defend
themselves against continuous threats and attacks. And Kim Davy himself a member of the
Ananda Marga brokered the 'transaction'.

All the arrested crew members were released by the government after persistent pressure
from Russia and Britain . The Latvian crew were released in 2000 while Bleach found his
way out in 2004. Meanwhile Davy was arrested by Danish authorities in 2007 and on April
9, 2010 Danish government decided to extradite Kim Davy to India but Danish authorities
failed to successfully defend their decision in the Danish high court. The court, therefore,
refused extradition of Kim Davy to India. Further, Danish authorities decided not to appeal
the high court judgement to the Supreme Court. Kim Davy later came up with a stunning
revelation that both the Central Government (under the Congress) and RAW(India's spy
agency) had prior knowledge about the arms drop and the weapons were dropped to help the
Anti-Left forces in Bengal and thereby creating a pretext to impose President's rule in West
Bengal. First of all I want to say this is nothing but a political affaire where lot of people
involved. According to Kim Davy leader of that operation told that he did that not for
harming any civilians but protect the poor rural people of purulia from state sponsored
communist terror of West Bengal. He told that many of his friend are tortured, killed in front
of him ,they had to defend themselves .That is the background of whole purulia armed drop
case. Davy also told the arms are commisoned by Indians & he was helped to fly out of India.
All the things were preplanned and 24 MP had signed a petition to protect the people of
Purulia district and Indian intelligance RAW was informed by external forces and approved
the arms drop month in advance.The communication was between the British intelligence
MI5 and RAW. There was a british ex-intelligence officer on the plane. He also revealed that
prominent politician from Bihar, Pappu Yadav, had masterminded his escape from India.

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Later Peter Bleach aligned with the 'Davy story line'. But the CBI has completely ruled out
any conspiracy involving the Central government in the arms drop and considers these
revelations by the accused as attempts to block their extradition which has continuously been
rejected by the Danish High Court.
Amidst new revelations and release of a documentary on the matter the CBI has now
decided to launch a fresh attempt to bring Davy to India with Davy himself stating to a news
channel that he'd be willing to stand trial anywhere in the world if his safety is guaranteed.

On 8 October 2008 the extradition of the key accused, Kim Davy, real name Niels Holck,
was close to being finalized as the government had, in principle, agreed on giving "sovereign
assurance" to the Danish authorities on their conditions, as well as bringing about some
changes in the existing extradition law. One of the conditions Denmark had set included the
waiving of the death penalty if Davy is convicted by a court for his involvement in the
dropping of a huge cache of arms and ammunition from an aircraft in West Bengal in 1995.

On 28 April 2011 Kim Davy came forward and alleged that both the Indian government
(congress party) as well as its intelligence agency R&AW were aware of the precise details of
the arms drop well in advance, and that the whole operation was conducted with the implicit
agreement of the Indian authorities.

On 29 April 2011 Central Bureau of Investigation denied all allegations of involvement or

collusion in the arms drop.

On 30 June 2011 Central Bureau of Investigation has been denied to extradite Kim Davy
a.k.a. Niels Holck to India for further proceedings in India. The Danish High Court, after
hearing evidence from Peter Bleach who described his personal experiences in jail in
Kolkata, dismissed the plea on the grounds of "torture or other inhuman treatment".

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 Bibliography

 WIKIPEDIA- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purulia_arms_drop_case
 MEDIA- https://economictimes.indiatimes.com
https://www.telegraphindia.com/
https://www.hindustantimes.com
 https://www.quora.com
 https://www.imdb.com