New Delhi | Hamid Nihal Ansari, a Mumbai based engineer who returned to India after spending 3 years sentence on Wednesday met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday.
#WATCH Indian National Hamid Ansari who came to India after being released from a Pakistan jail yesterday, meets External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Delhi. His mother tells EAM “Mera Bharat mahaan, meri madam mahaan, sab madam ne hi kiya hai.” pic.twitter.com/FQEzz99Ohm
— ANI (@ANI) December 19, 2018
Ansari returned to India through the Wagah Border nearly 8 years after Pakistan’s Intelligence agencies detained him in 2012 and subsequently sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by a military court in 2015 for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card. Ansari was lodged in the Peshawar Central Jail after being sentenced by the military court on December 15, 2015. His three-year jail term ended on December 15, 2018 but he was not able to leave for India as his legal documents were not ready.
Ansari went missing after he was taken into custody by Pakistani intelligence agencies and local police in Kohat in 2012 and finally in reply to a habeas corpus petition filed by his mother, Fauzia Ansari, the high court was informed that he was in custody of the Pakistan Army and was being tried by a military court. He entered Pakistan from Afghanistan, reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online.
A two-judge Peshawar High Court bench, comprising Justice Roohul Amin and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan, on Thursday heard an appeal filed by Ansari through his lawyer Qazi Muhammad Anwar. Anwar informed the bench that both the Ministry of Interior and authorities of prison, where he was lodged, were completely silent about his release and deportation to India.
After hearing this, Justice Khan asked the Additional Attorney General to explain how would they keep the prisoner in jail after completion of his term. An officer, representing the interior ministry, informed the court that a prisoner could be kept for one month while the legal documents were being prepared.
After knowing the legal position, the court directed the ministry to make all the arrangements within a month for releasing and deportation of the prisoner.
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