Khalil Chishti freed by India court.

[sanddy]

BBC News - Khalil Chishti, Pakistani doctor, freed by India court

The Supreme Court has freed a Pakistani
doctor who spent 20 years in jail or
detention in India for murder .

Khalil Chishti, 80, can now return home to
Pakistan with no restrictions.

The court dropped the murder charge against
the scientist and said he had served enough
time for his conviction of "causing voluntary
harm".

He was allowed to go home in May on
humanitarian grounds for six months and
returned to India in November with his wife
Mehrunissa and son Tariq.

Dr Chishti has always denied the murder
charge and says he was framed.

On Wednesday, Justices P Sathasivam and
Ranjan Gogoi said that as Dr Chishti had
already served 14 months in an Indian jail,
the "ends of justice will be met by serving
him with the period of imprisonment already
undergone", the Press Trust of India reported.
The judges also ordered the Indian
authorities to return Dr Chishti's passport
and to ensure a "smooth return" home for
him.

Long trial

Dr Chishti was convicted and sentenced to
life imprisonment in January 2011 for killing
a man after a fight in the Rajasthani city of
Ajmer in 1992.

He was found guilty after an unusually long
18-year trial during which he was put under
house arrest.

President Zardari had raised the issue of Dr
Chishti's release at his lunch meeting with
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
during a private visit to India in April this
year.

In its order in May, the Supreme Court
allowed him to visit his home in the
Pakistani city of Karachi, but ordered him to
return to India to attend his next court
hearing on 20 November.

 

[Spring Onion]

Pakistani microbiologist Mohammed Khalil Chishti was on Wednesday acquitted by the Supreme Court of the murder charge in a 20-year-old criminal case and was allowed to return to his country without any restriction.
However, the court declined to interfere with his conviction for voluntarily causing hurt under section 324 of the Indian Penal Code and served him with the sentence already undergone by him in prison.

A bench of justices P. Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi noted that the 82-year-old Chishti was in the jail for almost a year during his stay in the country and “ends of justice will be met by serving him with the period of imprisonment already undergone”.

While clearing him of the murder charge, the bench said there was no scope for applying section 34 of the IPC which deals with the offence of common intention.
The bench directed the authorities to return to Chishti all documents including his passport and said he was free to return to Pakistan without any restriction.

The bench, which considered the age and qualification of Chishti, directed the authorities to take all possible steps for his “smooth return” to his country.

The bench also referred to its May 10 order and said since no further proceeding is required against him, the surety of Rs. 5 lakh be released to him or his nominee.

On May 10, the court had asked Chishti to deposit his passport and furnish as security Rs. 5 lakh in cash within two weeks before its registry.

The other two accused in the case were also held guilty only under section 324 of IPC and were directed to be released forthwith.

The court said it was left with “no reliable evidence” in the case as the prosecution had come out with two sets of version of the crime and two sets of evidence which were contradictory.
Earlier on May 4, the Supreme Court had agreed to hear Chishti’s plea to visit his country and had sought the Centre’s response to it.

Chishti had been granted bail by the Supreme Court on April 9. Held guilty in a murder case, he had been serving life term in a Rajasthan’s Ajmer jail.

The court had granted bail to Chishti on humanitarian grounds, but had asked him not to leave Ajmer till further orders.

Although the Centre had objected to Chishti visiting Pakistan temporarily saying he may not return to India, the court had allowed him to pay a visit to Pakistan.

Chishti had come to see his ailing mother in 1992 when he got embroiled in a brawl, and, in the ensuing melee, one of his neighbours was shot dead while his nephew got injured.

Born in Ajmer to a prosperous family of caretakers of the Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti shrine, Chishti was studying in Pakistan at the time of partition in 1947 and chose to stay there.
After a prolonged trial that stretched 18 years, Chishti was held guilty in the murder case and was awarded life sentence on January 31, last year by an Ajmer sessions court.

He had earlier also been granted bail by the sessions court during the trial but was ordered not to leave Ajmer. He was re-arrested to serve the sentence after he was convicted.

Chishti, who suffers from heart, hearing and other ailments, had lived in his brother’s poultry farm till his conviction.

His case came to light when Justice Markandey Katju, the then Supreme Court judge, wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging that the Pakistani national be pardoned on humanitarian grounds.

An eminent professor in Karachi Medical College, Chishti holds a PhD from Edinburgh University

The Hindu : News / National : Chishti acquitted of murder, free to return to Pak

 

[A.Rafay]

Good he was innocent and now old also, should spend time with family.