A London based Indian-origin woman is facing extradition to India over her alleged involvement in the murder of a 12-year-old orphan boy from Gujarat. Arti Dhir was arrested after an Interpol alert over the murder of Gopal Ajani in February 2017.

The 52-year-old appeared before Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London for a hearing on her bail application on January 23, 2018. But the hearing remains pending as her family members have been able to manage a sum of £50K as security. “This should be sorted out in a week,” Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot said as Dhir remains in custody until the security is deposited with the court.

In an investigation by the Gujarat Police, it was claimed that Arti, who works at London’s Heathrow airport and two other accused Nitish Mund and Kanwaljit Raizada had adopted the child in 2015 and then insured him for Rs 1.3 crore just days before staging his kidnap and murder in India. The money from the life insurance payout was then to be split three ways.

Ajani and his brother-in-law, Harsukh Patel, were stabbed to death on a road outside Rajkot in February 2017. It was reported that Arti plotted the murder by hiring contract killers soon after adopting the child and gave them Rs 5 lakh. They even attempted to kill the boy earlier but they couldn’t do it because they didn’t find a location.

Police claimed that Mund and Raizada, both from India, met Arti when they were studying in London and the trio began plotting the murder in 2015. After Indian authorities submitted an extradition request to face a murder trial at Westminster Magistrates Court, Interpol issued a ‘red notice’ for Arti in April.

She was arrested by Met’s Extradition Unit on June 29, 2017, and since then remains in custody awaiting her deportation hearing.

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