The NYTimes, July 16, 2000

Indian Arrested for U.S. Killing

BOMBAY, India (AP) -- An Indian student wanted for allegedly killing his

niece last year in Florida has been arrested and will be extradited to the

United States, police said Sunday.

Kamlesh Agrawal, 22, was taken into custody Friday at a hotel in

Downtown Bombay, officer Vasant Tajne told The Associated Press.

His 20-year-old niece, Deepa Agarwal, was killed July 11, 1999, in her Orlando, Fla., apartment. Her body was found in a box hidden in a bedroom closet.

Agrawal, who was in the United States on a student visa, often stayed at his niece’s two-bedroom apartment and had his own key. Neighbors reported seeing him leave the apartment complex about 5 a.m. on the day of the killing. He left for India before a first-degree murder warrant for his arrest was issued.

Deepa Agarwal’s sister, Sheela, a Duke University student, launched a campaign to pressure U.S. authorities to extradite her uncle from India.

Bombay police kept a watch on local hotels, acting on a tip that Agrawal may visit his father, who had come to Bombay for medical treatment from his hometown in eastern Bihar state.

“We knew he would not visit his family at their homes in Bombay, so we kept contact with hotels,” Tajne said. “Of course, he was very surprised when he saw us.”

India’s External Affairs Ministry will take up his extradition with the U.S.

Embassy in New Delhi, Tajne said.

India and the United States signed an extradition treaty in 1987 that provides for prompt extradition of fugitives and offenders from either country.