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US seeks extradition of its citizen for hawala offence
Mumbai, Oct 14: The United States has sought extradition of its Indian-born citizen Pragnesh Desai who was last month acquitted by an Indian court of the charges of murdering his fiancee and US model Liona Swideski.
Pragnesh was arrested a second time on October 8 as the US government had sought his extradition, but was released on bail.
Responding to the counsel general's letter, Pragnesh, who runs a chain of restaurants in USA, has urged the vice counsel at the American consulate here that he was prepared to appear before a new jersey court along with his lawyer Majeed Memon at any date fixed by them. He also refuted allegations that he was absconding, saying he was in custody of Indian Police allegedly for murder of his fiancee.
A Thane sessions court had recently acquitted Pragnesh of the charges of conspiracy to kill Liona who was throttled to death. Her body was found in a car at Kashimira in nearby Thane district on February 8 this year.
According to Pragnesh, he arrived from USA with Liona on February 8. However, he stepped outside the airport to look for his friend as Liona went to a toilet. When she did
not come out for a long time he lodged a missing complaint with police.
Police arrested Pragnesh on the charge of conspiring to murder Liona. According to prosecution, he had "hired" Vipul Patel and two others to murder her. It is the case of police that he had sent Rs ten lakhs to India through hawala for this purpose. He has denied the charge.
Bureau Report