Related Stories Look who’s playing Godfather nowWinded juntaIS THE WEST OVERCROWDED?US now targets India, China for oil price riseSmall country, big query

NEW DELHI, APRIL 29: For the last four years, Stephen Jenkins, 58, has been behind bars at the Tihar Jail here. Arrested in a drug peddling case on August 31, 2004, Jenkins was awarded a 10-year jail term on November 2, 2006. However, less than two years after he was sentenced, he is set to go home — but not as a free man.

In a plea sent to the authorities about four months back, Jenkins, who is seriously ill, had said: “I want to die in my homeland. I can serve the rest of my imprisonment in my country’s jail. Please send me.” The request was forwarded to the Home Ministry, and subsequently taken up by the two governments.

Under the “Indo-UK agreement on transfer of sentenced prisoners,” Jenkins has been allowed to serve the rest of his sentence at a prison in the UK. According to sources, this is the first such repatriation of a British prisoner. Jenkins is set to leave India on May 1.

The bilateral agreement, signed by Home Minister Shivraj Patil and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in February 2005, is a part of the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between the two countries.

“It is a mutual agreement. If any Indian prisoner in a British jail wants to serve his term here, his request could also be considered,” said an official.

“He probably had an intuition that he is not going to survive till the end of his term. He is already 58, and is also seriously ill,” said a jail official.

“When Jenkins came to know that he is finally going to his homeland after so long, he was very happy. He thanked the Indian government for allowing him to serve rest of his term there. It does not matter that he will be in jail there too. He is just excited to be going home,” he added. According to jail records, Jenkins is a resident of 64 Park Estate, Yorkshire. Sources said he was unemployed when he came to India in 2004 and started drug peddling. “He was caught under the NDPS Act, in which imprisonment can be up to 10 years,” said an official.