known risk on board
If we could leave aside the quality of journalism and look at the alleged incident in principle ?
There are cases on record where flights originating from Europe were denied access to American airspace because the passenger manifest contained a suspect's name. I presume that the same authorities would not want a flight with a potentially suicidal passenger back in their airspace. Much better the problem be exported to somewhere else!
Unless we hear (not that I expect to) the captain's side of the story, we may surmise that he had not much choice in the matter and quietly complied with instructions and that he heaved a big sigh of relief when he deposited a quiet fugitive in New Delhi.
The travelling public contains a certain percentage of violent criminals just like every other segment of society - its just that in most cases we don't recognize them.As yet we do not have to submit a police clearance when we check in.
They were lucky on that flight. As we often are.