A loud cry broke the quiet of a Delhi court on Friday as Puneet Puneet, the hit-run driver who is facing extradition to Australia, wailed "I will be killed! I will be killed!" as he sat next to his uncle.

Judge Gurmohina Kaur, whose view was blocked by a phalanx of lawyers standing in front of her desk, was shocked and looked around, asking: "Who made that sound? Was it him?".

As Puneet, wearing a wide bandage on his head kept weeping, his uncle replied on his behalf: "Yes, he says he will be killed. He is saying, don’t send him back." As everyone stared, the uncle led Puneet out of the Patiala District Court, still weeping with his head bowed.

Hit-run driver Puneet Puneet (right) leaves court with his uncle in Dehli on Friday. Credit:Amrit Dhillon

The drama occurred in what was expected to be the last stage of an extradition trial that has lasted several years, in a case that is almost 10 years old, a fact strongly emphasised by Bhaskar Vali, the Indian government prosecutor in the case.