In yet another inconclusive hearing in the runaway Indian driver Puneet Puneet’s extradition case, final arguments were drawn out in Patiala House Court in India’s capital New Delhi on Friday.
Prosecution lawyer Bhaskar Vali, on behalf of the Union of India, which handles extradition matters told the court in detail how Puneet jumped his bail conditions and used a friend’s passport to flee Australia in 2009.
Summarising the events, Mr Vali told the court that Puneet was granted bail by Magistrates Court in Melbourne in 2008 on conditions that he wouldn't travel outside Victoria, would not drive and have to surrender his passport.
But despite the conditions, Puneet fled to India in 2009 on his friend Sukhcharanjit Singh’s passport. However, he was arrested four years later, on his wedding day.
Citing Puneet’s friend Mr Singh’s statement to the police investigator, the prosecutor explained how Puneet managed to “dupe” his friend out of his passport.
In his statement, Mr Singh claimed that Puneet took away his passport on the pretext of getting him a credit card. But later when he asked Puneet to return his passport on two counts, at first he told him that he would return his passport the following day and eventually said he was drunk and had lost the document, Mr Vali told the court while presenting his final arguments.
The prosecutor also reproduced truck driver David Armstrong’s testimony who had witnessed the crash and saw Puneet driving at a “furious speed” and thought that "the driver was on a suicide mission". 
Puneet was allegedly drunk when the car he was driving in Melbourne crashed into two pedestrians, both students from Queensland. The crash killed a 19-year-old student Dean Hofstee and injured another friend 20-year-old Clancy Coker on a fatal night in October 2008.
Puneet Puneet after a court hearing in India. (File photo) Source: AAP
Police said he was over the legal alcohol limit and was estimated to be driving at 148 km/h. He pleaded guilty to culpable driving offences.
Mr Vali further told the court that there were inconsistencies in Puneet’s statements throughout the trial.
He said Puneet initially claimed that he had consumed four standard measures of Scotch whisky with coke before the accident at a dinner hosted by his friend.
He later changed his statement to the police and said he'd consumed light beer and black label whisky, Mr Vali informed the court.
The hearing concluded with Judge Gurmohini Kaur setting February 16 as the next date of hearing and added that no adjournments would be sought in the matter.
Puneet’s extradition trial which will determine whether he will be sent back to Melbourne has been going on in the Delhi court for over five years, prolonging the anguish of the families of the accident victims who want him to face justice in Australia.
Puneet’s lawyer Kanhaiya Kumar Singhal who is accused of deliberately delaying the court’s proceedings is expected to present his final arguments at the next hearing.
