Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: As Islamists applaud a kangaroo tribunal sentencing ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed on charges of “crimes against humanity,” and Dhaka asking New Delhi to return her, India is unlikely to send her back to Bangladesh in a hurry.
Hasina, 78, who fled Dhaka as pro-Pakistani Islamists, disguised as ‘student protesters,’ stormed her home in August 2024, is living in exile in New Delhi.
Her presence in India, despite repeated requests from Bangladesh to hand her over, has been a key source of friction between the neighbours over the past 15 months. Now, with Hasina formally convicted of alleged crimes against humanity and sentenced to death, those tensions are expected to rise further.
Ahead of the February 2026 parliamentary elections, Bangladesh’s Interim Government, led by Chief Advisor Mohammed Yunus, has urged India to extradite Sheikh Hasina, raising questions over what the 2013 bilateral treaty permits and when India can refuse.
Even though India is eager to build a partnership with a post-Hasina Dhaka, it is unlikely that New Delhi turns the former PM to Bangladesh to face the death penalty. “How can New Delhi push her towards death?” former Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, was quoted as saying in media reports on Tuesday.
Hasina, Bangladesh’s longest serving PM, is the eldest daughter of Bangladesh founder-President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the war for independence from Pakistan in 1971, and was massacred by Islamists along with other family members in 1975. Hasina survived as he was abroad.
As PM, she uplifted Bangladesh from abject poverty, improved its economy, and set it on path of modernity. In recent years, her country witnessed rapid gross domestic product growth and outpaced India’s per capita income. But pro-Pakistanis, as also puppets of China and America, accused her of being pro-India.
By July 2024, an Islamist-led student protest, that initially began over government job quotas for descendants of those freedom fighters who fought in the 1971 war against Pakistan, escalated into a nationwide call for Hasina to go after a crackdown by security forces. Nearly 1,400 people were reported killed, according to estimates by the United Nations.
Hasina fled to New Delhi on August 5, 2024, and the West’s puppet Muhammad Yunus took over as interim leader. His government has since built closer ties with Pakistan amid tensions with India, including over Dhaka’s insistence that New Delhi expel Hasina.
On Tuesday, Dhaka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs raised the pitch against New Delhi further. It cited an extradition agreement with India and said it was an “obligatory responsibility” for New Delhi to ensure Hasina’s return to Bangladesh. “It would be a highly unfriendly act and a disregard for justice” for India to continue to provide Hasina refuge.
However, the extradition treaty has an exception– in cases in which the offence is “of a political character.”
“India understands this to be political vindictiveness of the ruling political forces in Bangladesh,” said Prof. Sanjay Bhardwaj, of South Asian studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, according to media reports.
In New Delhi’s view, Bangladesh is today ruled by “anti-India forces”. Yunus has frequently criticised India and cosied up with America and China as well. Leaders of the protest movement that ousted Hasina have often blamed New Delhi for its support of the former PM.
Against this backdrop, “handing over Hasina would mean legitimising” those opposed to India, Bhardwaj added.
In New Delhi, India’s Ministry of External Affairs “noted the verdict” against Hasina and said New Delhi “will always engage constructively with all stakeholders.”
“We remain committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh, including in peace, democracy, inclusion and stability in that country”.
The relationship between New Delhi and Dhaka today is frosty. The flourishing economic, security and political alliance that existed under Hasina has now morphed into ties characterised by mistrust.
Bangladesh’s elections scheduled in February 2026 could offer a new opening. Even though Hasina’s Awami League is banned from contesting and most other major political forces – including the biggest opposition force, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)– are critics of New Delhi’s, India will find it easier to work with an elected administration.
India and Bangladesh share close cultural ties and a 4,000-km-long border. India is Bangladesh’s second biggest trading partner after China. In fact, trade between India and Bangladesh has increased in recent months despite the current tensions.
Under Hasina’s long rule, ties with India flourished, even as she faced domestic criticism over brokering deals with Indian firms seen as unfair for Dhaka.
Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst based in Washington, DC, said Hasina’s presence in India would continue to “remain a thorn in their bilateral relationship” but it has enabled “India to stay true to its pledge to remain loyal to its allies.”
Meanwhile, Dhaka has again urged India to immediately extradite Hasina and her former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.
Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry said the existing bilateral extradition agreement between Bangladesh and India marks the transfer of the two convicts as a “compulsory responsibility for New Delhi.” “Granting shelter to individuals convicted of crimes against humanity would be considered an unfriendly act and a disregard for justice.”
India and Bangladesh signed an extradition treaty in 2013 to strengthen cooperation in combating crime and terrorism by establishing a system for the reciprocal extradition of offenders. According to the treaty, an offence qualifies for extradition if it is punishable by at least one year of imprisonment in both India and Bangladesh. This includes not only major crimes like murder, terrorism-related acts, kidnapping, and violent offences, but also financial or revenue offences. Aiding, abetting or participating as an accomplice also qualifies.
Either of the countries can request extradition when a person accused, charged or convicted of a crime flees to the other country and is found there. Extradition is sought to bring the offender back for trial or enforce a sentence.
The treaty also lists several circumstances under which an extradition can be denied. According to Article 6 (1), extradition can be refused for political offences. However, Article 6 (2) clarifies that serious crimes like murder, terrorism, kidnapping, violent acts, incitement to murder, and firearm offences are not considered political.
Notably, Hasina has been charged for murder, attempted murder, torture and other cruel acts.
However, Article 8 states that extradition can also be refused if the person can show that the offence is too minor to justify such a serious step, too much time has passed since the alleged act or escape from justice, or the charges were made in bad faith and not for genuine legal reasons. Extradition may also be denied if the offence is purely military in nature and not considered a crime under normal civilian law. These safeguards exist to ensure extradition is not used unfairly or for the wrong reasons.