A KIDNAPPER dubbed ‘Burnley’s most wanted man’ has been detained by magistrates until Monday by Indian authorities in Goa.
Fugitive Ajay Kaushal, on the run from a 15-year jail term for abducting and torturing a Burnley businessman, failed to win bail when he appeared in court in the town of Panaji.
The authorities in India said Kaushal is understood to have run his own business in Bangkok and entered Goa using a Thai passport.
Lawyers for the 50-year-old tried to argue Kaushal’s detention was illegal under Indian law.
His whereabouts were uncovered following the suspected drugs-related death of his travelling companion, Glasgow-born William Scott Youdale, 39, on Sunday.
Prosecutors have told magistrates they have been contacted by Interpol, on behalf of Lancashire Police, whose officers are set to arrive in Goa to take custody of the Manchester man.
The UK and India has a long-standing extradition treaty, which the authorities say entitles them to hold a suspect for 60 days.
The case has been adjourned until Monday and Kaushal will remain in an Indian prison cell in the meantime.
He was convicted for the 2003 kidnapping and torture of Burnley second-hand shop owner Alec Cunningham.
The victim was snatched from his home in Briercliffe and subjected to a variety of indignities by a six-strong gang, including Kaushal.
Later he was dumped wearing only his underpants in Wythenshawe, south Manchester, after a £16,000 ransom was paid.
Jurors found him guilty of the kidnapping and torture offences following a Preston Crown Court trial in 2005 and he was sentenced in his absence.
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