What happened in Purulia in 1995 and what Denmark has to do with it

Almost 30 years after Denmark’s Niels Holck, also known as Kim Davy, dropped four tonnes of arms and ammunitions in West Bengal’s Purulia, a Danish court on Thursday ruled against his extradition to India. The ruling does not mean a clean chit to Holck as the judge invoked Denmark’s extradition law saying that there is a risk that if extradited to India, he would be subjected to treatment in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Purulia story began with the shock and surprise that consumed West Bengal villagers in the morning of December 18, 1995, and unravelling of a conspiracy bordered on threatening national security. The locals of Jhalda, Khatanga, Belamu, Maramu villages of West Bengal’s Purulia district found sophisticated weapons spread all over their fields when they woke up on that wintry morning. The news soon spread and security agencies reacted in panic with no clue about the source and intended destination of such a huge cache of weapons.

The weapons had been dropped the previous night by an ageing Russian AN 26 transport plane that had taken off from Pakistan’s Karachi on December 17 for Dhaka in Bangladesh. It stopped in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, to refuel, and made a course diversion in the neighbouring Bihar’s Gaya to Purulia.  

The plane delivering the arms and ammunition had eight people on board — Niels Holck also known as Kim Davy from Denmark, British arms dealer — and the operational mastermind — Peter Bleach, Singaporean of Indian descent Deepak Manikan and and five Russian-speaking Latvian crew. In Purulia, it flew dangerously low and dropped tonnes of deadly arms and ammunition in the dark night.  

They then took the plane back to its original flight corridor to land at Kolkata’s Dum Dum airport, where they refuelled it before taking off for Phuket, Thailand.

The weapons were meant for Anand Marg, a social-spiritual sect that had allegedly turned militant. In a 2015 book — The Night It Rained Guns: Unravelling the Purulia Arms Drop Conspiracy — journalist-author Chandan Nandy calls it “a spectacular operation to breach India’s security”.  

The weapons

The dark night had possibly confused Holck and others. The morning scene that villagers described to journalists thronging Purulia was startling. Weapons, strange for villagers, were spread over a wide area and in open fields. Purulia, the headquarters of the Ananda Marg, had never witnessed such a sight before.

Security personnel rushed and started collecting weapons — 10 RPG-7 rocket launchers, 300 AK-47s, 25 9-mm pistols, two 7.62 sniper rifles, two night vision binoculars, 100 grenades, 23,800 rounds of 7.62 ammunition, 6,000 rounds of 9-mm ammunition, 100 anti-tank grenades as well as 10 telescopic sights for rocket launchers.  

The cargo weighed 4,375 kg.

 Did India have intelligence?

Information now available in the public domain points to glaring negligence on part of the security agencies. British intelligence MI5 had reportedly tipped off the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s external intelligence agency, which on November 25, 1995 — 22 days before the arms were dropped — alerted the Intelligence Bureau and top secretaries of the Union government then headed by PV Narasimha Rao.

However, three weeks later, none of the agencies was found to be tailing the lead and the plane. They got a second to catch the conspirators as they decided to return to Karachi via India. They landed in Chennai, refuelled and took off. Now, the agencies showed some action. The plane was force-landed in Mumbai.  

While others were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment, Holck and Manikan somehow escaped. In the dossier that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) gave to the Interpol and Denmark, it said that it was Deepak who bought the parachutes from South Africa that were used to unload the cache.

Later, the Latvian crew were released on Russia’s request in 2000 and Bleach was set free in 2004 — by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Holck and Denmark connection

Years later, Holck wrote a book and featured in a documentary having settled down comfortably in his native country Denmark. In his book — De Kalder Mig Terrorist ( They Call Me Terrorist) — Holck procured weapons for the protection of the Ananda Marga sect, which was allegedly facing threats from the then Jyoti Basu-led communist government of West Bengal.  

Holck also claims that he had been given assurance by the Rao-led Congress government at the Centre that he would be allowed to return to Denmark safely.

In 2011, in an interview with Indian TV news channel Times Now, Holck repeated his claim. He also said that he was an Ananda Margi.  

“The Indian authorities knew the flight plan, the people on board, the cargo, the drop zone – everything was known well in advance and approved well in advance,” Davy claimed, adding there was communication “between the British intelligence MI5 and RAW”.  

The extradition case

After remaining off radar for several years, he was traced by Denmark authorities in 2007. As the successive Indian governments pursued its extradition request for Holck with the Denmark government, the latter agreed in 2010 to send the prime accused to face the law in India. But Holck challenged the decision citing Denmark’s extradition law and the Danish government could not defend its decision in the court.

Since then, the governments have been in talks about his extradition and Holck has depended on the Danish courts to keep himself off the hook. During every high-profile bilateral visit, Holck’s extradition creates chatter in diplomacy and media.

In 2021, when Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen visited India, the question of Holck’s extradition was put to spokespersons of both the countries. India’s external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “We are focused on that. It has been on the agenda. We have raised it in the past and we remain engaged with Denmark on this issue and our discussions are ongoing on the issue.”  

Danish Ambassador Freddy Svane said, “Judiciaries on both sides are looking into it. We will leave it to them. They are extremely competent and know how to handle these kinds of things.”

In 2023, when Danish Foreign Affairs Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen visited India, he said “it is a work in progress” and that it is not a “political topic”.

Now, a year later, the Denmark court has held that “the guarantees India has provided [for securing Holck’s extradition] are not valid”. The two sides have been negotiating the conditions for several years, during which Holck has told the same court that he was on board the plane that dropped arms in Purulia for a rebel group but the judge viewed that “his safety can’t be guaranteed” in India.