A PIO couple found guilty of importing cocaine into Australia was rejected extradition by London to India to face accusations of double murder

LONDON: On Monday, a married couple of Indian descent who were charged with two counts of double homicide in Gujarat and who the UK courts refused to extradite, even at New Delhi’s request, were found guilty of money laundering and smuggling cocaine valued at £57 million (about Rs 600 crore) on commercial flights from London to Sydney.

British Indian Arti Dhir,59, who was born in Nairobi and whose family is from Gurdaspur in Punjab, and her husband, Kavaljitsinh Raijada,35, an Indian national from Keshod, Gujarat, who resides in Hanwell, were found to be behind a front company that had shipped the drugs to Australia by plane disguised as metal toolboxes. They were found guilty of exporting 514 kg of cocaine.
After the cocaine was seized by Australian Border Force in May 2021 upon its arrival in Sydney, the pair was recognized by NCA detectives.
Police identified Dhir and Raijada as the consignment’s original owners. They had established a phony business named Viefly Freight Services specifically for the purpose of transporting narcotics.
The toolbox receipts were recovered in the couple’s residence, and Raijada’s fingerprints were detected on the plastic wrapping. Both Dhir and Raijada worked for a flight services firm at Heathrow, and they covered up their illicit actions with their knowledge of the airport freight protocols.
At their residence, NCA agents found gold-plated silver bars and millions of pounds of cash after they were arrested.
Although Dhir and Raijada disputed the accusations, a jury at Southwark Crown Court found them guilty of 12 counts of exporting and 18 counts of money laundering. The NCA will now take legal action against them in order to seize the assets they obtained unlawfully.
India attempted to extradite the couple in 2019 so they could be prosecuted for double murder in Gujarat.
The couple is accused of arranging, alongside Nitish Mund, the murder of Gopal Sejani, a 12-year-old orphan that Dhir adopted in 2015, and his brother-in-law Harsukhbhai Chaganbhai Kardani in Gujarat, with the intention of receiving the money from a claim on an insurance policy Dhir purchased for Gopal.
Two masked assassins assaulted Gopal and Karadani in Keshod, Junagadh, on February 8, 2017. They subsequently passed away from knife wounds in the hospital. It is said that Mund received Rs 5 lakh from Dhir and Raijada in order to recruit the assassins.
Chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot of the Westminster Magistrates’ Court denied the plea for extradition on July 2, 2019, citing the possibility of their life sentence in Gujarat and the lack of any chance of early release.
That was in spite of an email from the Indian government, 45 minutes before to her ruling, guaranteeing the court that Dhir and Raijadaan would be qualified to request remission.
The Indian government’s appeal was denied by two justices of the high court.