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Amongst the 10 "least wanted people in Canada" is an Indian, Rakesh Saxena, who made headlines in the international media in 1995-96 when he was accused of defrauding the Bangkok Bank of Commerce to the tune of several million dollars and then escaping and hiding in British Columbia.
The Thai police finally caught up to him in Whistler, a ski resort near Vancouver when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested him as he was preparing to leave the country on a false identity, Staff Sgt. Peter Montague then told a reporter.
The Thai Police then formally sought his extradition to Thailand to face fraud charges there.
In June 1996, the BC Supreme Court Justice Wally Oppal, himself an Indo-Canadian, released him after he posted $2-million bail.
Saxena has been under house arrest since then in his luxury condominium in Vancouver. Under court orders he's paying Cdn $ 40,000 a month for his own 24-hour guards.
He is fighting his extradition to Thailand, where he is accused of embezzling Cdn $88-million from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce, said a two-page report in the Globe and Mail.
The other nine of Canada's least wanted people include an admitted member of a death squad in Honduras, a man accused of inciting hatred and murder of Tutsis in Rwanda, an Iranian accused of being an international assassin, a Palestinian convicted of an attack on jetliner and manslaughter, etc.
For his $2-million bail, Saxena paid $1 million cash, and also pledged without deposit $ 500,000 and an additional $ 500,000 from a third party acting as a surety.
While in house arrest, Saxena was only allowed to go to his lawyer's office, a hospital facility or court.
The report in the Canadian daily says Saxena has also been allegedly charged with culpable homicide, extortion and uttering death threats in India. He has, however, not been convicted of any offence.
To him confinement in Canada was "a living death."
Last fall, the BC Supreme Court ruled that Saxena should be sent back to Thailand to face trial. He has, however, reportedly launched two efforts to remain in Canada: one with Canada's Justice Minister Anne McLellan and the other with the BC Court of Appeal.
He wants McLellan to decide that his life is at risk if he is extradited to Thailand.
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