Man fights extradition from India for wife's murder

The man who police say strangled and killed his wife in her Ahwatukee Foothills home, and then escaped to India, is now arguing that his extradition to Arizona for first-degree murder is illegal.

On Tuesday an India Express article said that Avtar Singh Grewal, 33, was fighting his extradition, arguing that no formal request has been made by Arizona or Maricopa County.

"We have asked for his extradition," confirmed Michael Scerbo, spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.

On April 5, 2007, County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced that Grewal was being charged with first-degree murder and that extradition proceedings were underway.

In June The Economic Times of India reported that the Ministry of External Affairs told a New Delhi court there was enough evidence that Grewal killed his wife to justify extradition.

Arizona documents show that Navneet Kaur, 30, was planning to discuss divorce with Grewal, who lived in Vancouver, Canada, when she picked him up at Sky Harbor International Airport on March 29, 2007.

According to evidence found at her home in the 4200 block of East Redwood Lane, the couple quarreled and Grewal strangled his wife, leaving her face-down in a downstairs bathtub before attempting to commit suicide. Failing that, he left a note behind admitting to killing Kaur before boarding a flight that eventually took him home to India.

Phoenix homicide detectives quickly identified Grewal as someone they wanted to interview, but just missed him in Newark, N.J., where he bought a one-way ticket and boarded a flight to New Delhi.

Indian police arrested Grewal as he exited his flight after being alerted by the FBI and Interpol.

India and the United States have an extradition treaty but experts say that it is a time-consuming process.

This week's India Express article also said that Grewal was arguing against extradition, claiming that there was no specific cause of death in what his attorneys called a flawed autopsy report.

The report from the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner says the cause of death is homicidal violence and the manner of death is homicide, typical in these types of cases.  It also goes on to say that Kaur showed signs of manual strangulation, had contusions and lacerations on her face and was found submerged in a bathtub.

A New Delhi court gave the Ministry of External Affairs until Oct. 6 to file their reply to Grewal's attorneys attempt to stop extradition.