In his attempt to fight extradition, Puneet has claimed that racism in Australia means that he will not receive fair treatment. A friend of his, Pankaj Monga, was in court as a witness to the "racism" of Australians, but since Monga had no ID proof, his testimony was postponed until the next hearing.

Puneet had claimed in earlier hearings that he was being treated by doctors in Delhi for a range of ailments and appears in court wearing a surgical mask and in a wheelchair. This time, he limped into court, assisted by a relative, in a navy blue track suit and oily hair, but remained slumped in his seat, gazing blankly into space.

Justice Kaur, who replaced an earlier judge hearing the case, said she was anxious to deliver a verdict on whether Puneet, 27, should be extradited to Australia to serve out his sentence, but needed time to read the 2000 page file.

Outside the court, Monga told Fairfax that his "dream" of going to Australia had turned into a "nightmare" and he was lucky to escape before anything happened to him. He said he first went to Adelaide in 2008, but when he failed to settle down emotionally, he went to stay with Puneet in Melbourne.

"It was no better in Melbourne. I begged Puneet to book my ticket back to India. You could be walking the streets taking pictures of buildings and suddenly someone would attack you. Even now my friends in Adelaide say the situation is much better than then but they still don't go out alone at night," Monga said.

He pointed to Puneet, slumped in his chair, and said: "He's almost finished. He might die before the case is decided. He's in such terrible shape. He's just a shell, he's half the young man he used to be. It's almost over for him."

The thrust of Singhal's arguments in court has been that Puneet cannot be extradited because of the "racism" he will face. Like many lawyers in India, Singhal has been using the time-honoured technique of asking for adjournments to delay the case. This is the main reason why the Indian courts can take years – up to a decade or more – to resolve cases.

An earlier judge rebuked Singhal for asking for adjournment after adjournment, but he continued in the same fashion on Monday, asking the judge for permission to produce diplomats from the Australian High Commission in Delhi to testify whether Puneet had been convicted or not. Later, he backtracked and asked merely for the relevant conviction documents to be produced in court.