Hundreds of people poured onto the streets of London holding placards on Saturday (5th March), demanding the extradition of an Indian man wanted in Britain for over five years on charges of rape, murder and other sexual assault cases.
Thirty-one-year-old Delhi-based Aman Vyas, the son of a wealthy Indian businessmen, is suspected by Metropolitan police of a string of late-night attacks in north-east London when he was in Britain on a student visa five years ago.
Vyas has been on bail since 2011.
Labour MP Stella Creasy, who led the march as part of International Women’s Day in Walthamstow, has also written to Indian High Commissioner to the UK Navtej Sarna seeking Vyas’ extradition to face the British court.
Creasy told The Times she was astounded it had taken so long to extradite a suspect in such serious cases.
“It’s worrying about whether they (the Indian authorities) are serious about dealing with this issue,” Creasy told The Times.
The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has authorised charges over the alleged murder and rape of Michelle Samaraweera, who was attacked and strangled in 2009 after she went out to buy milk while staying with her boyfriend in Walthamstow. She was 35 at the time.
The CPS has also authorised charges against Vyas over three allegations of rapes in the two months before Samaraweera’s murder and the Metropolitan police are investigating whether he is responsible for five other sex attacks.
An application by lawyers for Vyas to dismiss the case against him was rejected by an Indian judge in 2012 but delays have meant that the British authorities have been unable so far to extradite him, according to The Times.
Vyas was arrested in July 2011 boarding a plane at Delhi airport that was bound for Auckland.
The family of Samaraweera said it was “disgusting” that they had had to wait so long for justice.
Forty-four-year-old Ann Chandradasa, one of the victim’s three sisters, said: “We just want to see justice done. I just want him back.”
Vyas is also alleged to have raped two women aged 59 and 46, and attacked another woman in her thirties.
The extradition is reported to have been delayed for several reasons, including counsel misplacing documents.
Vyas is living with his family in Delhi and has bail until next month.
