Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has discharged
an Israeli national, arrested at the international airport
here last October after two live cartridges were found in her
backpack, noting that it was not a "conscious possession".
Nurit Toker was arrested on October 27, 2011 at the
Mumbai Airport.
Toker, in India on a holiday, was on her way to
Kathmandu. She had to spend four days in the police custody
before the magistrate's court granted her bail.
She then approached the High Court, seeking to quash
the criminal case registered against her.
According to Toker, she had been given an M-16 assault
rifle during her compulsory military service in Israel which
ended in October. "After completing the service, she decided
to take a vacation. She had returned the rifle, but forgot to
remove the cartridges from her back-pack," said her counsel,
advocate Niteen Pradhan.
During the probe, she produced a report from the Israeli
Embassy, supporting her claim that cartridges were left in the
backpack by mistake.
On receipt of the report, the investigating officer
applied to magistrate for withdrawal of the case, but the
lower court rejected it and issued summons to her.
The division bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and RG
Ketkar, in the ruling last week, held that from the material
collected by police and the Embassy report, "It is amply clear
that possession of two live cartridges was a result of some
mistake. It was not a case of conscious possession."
Discharging her from the case, High Court directed that
her passport be returned.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, January 22, 2012, 16:24